Astroglia and glutamate in physiology and pathology: aspects on glutamate transport, glutamate-induced cell swelling and gap-junction communication

E Hansson, H Muyderman, J Leonova… - Neurochemistry …, 2000 - Elsevier
Astroglia have the capacity to monitor extracellular glutamate (Glu) and maintain it at low
levels, metabolize Glu, or release it back into the extracellular space. Glu can induce an
increase in astroglial cell volume with a resulting decrease of the extracellular space, and
thereby alter the concentration of extracellular substances. Many lines of evidence show that
K+ can be buffered within the astroglial gap-junction-coupled network, and recent results
show that gap junctions are permeable for Glu. All these events occur dynamically: the …