Abstract
Astrocytes are ideally positioned to couple neuronal activity with energy metabolism. Thus particular astrocytic profiles, the end-feet, surround intraparenchymal capillaries, implying that they form the first cellular barrier that energy substrates entering the brain parenchyma, in particular glucose, encounter. In addition, astrocytes possess receptors and reuptake sites for neurotransmitters, and astrocytic processes ensheath synaptic contacts: these features imply that astrocytes are ideally positioned to sense increases in synaptic activity and to couple them with energy metabolism. We have characterized three metabolic processes regulated by neurotransmitters in primary astrocyte cultures prepared from neonatal mouse cerebral cortex: glycogenolysis, glycogen resynthesis and glycolysis.