Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

NEUROSCIENCE

Astroglial clean-up of satiety synapses

Until now, the BDNF–TrkB signalling pathway was thought to be exclusively regulated by neurons. Ameroso et al. show that astrocytic TrkB.T1 is a critical substrate of BDNF in the regulation of energy balance and that its defective signalling in hypothalamic circuits leads to obesity.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Astrocytes govern excitatory neurotransmission and feeding behaviour by integrating BDNF–TrkB.T1 signalling.

References

  1. Brobeck, J. R. Physiol. Rev. 26, 541–559 (1946).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Nedergaard, M. & Verkhratsky, A. Glia 60, 1013–1023 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Rios, M. et al. Mol. Endocrinol. 15, 1748–1757 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Xu, B. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 6, 736–742 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Unger, T. J., Calderon, G. A., Bradley, L. C., Sena-Esteves, M. & Rios, M. J. Neurosci. 27, 14265–14274 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Liao, G. Y. et al. Nat. Med. 18, 564–571 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ameroso, D., Meng, A., Felsted, J., Dulla, C. G. & Rios, M. Nat. Metab. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00566-0 (2022).

  8. Murat, C. B. & García-Cáceres, C. Metabolites 11, 732 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Licht, T. & Keshet, E. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 70, 1727–1737 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Gruber, T. et al. Cell Metab. 33, 1155–1170.e10 (2021).

  11. Noriega-Prieto, J. A. et al. J. Neurosci. 41, 4768–4781 (2021).

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank C. Holleman for her comments. The authors’ research is supported by funding from the European Research Council ERC (CGC: STG grant AstroNeuroCrosstalk # 757393), the German Research Foundation DFG under Germany’s Excellence Strategy within the framework of the Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (EXC 2145 SyNergy – ID 390857198) and Helmholtz Excellence Network and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GS: SPP1757 - SA2114/2-2), and Helmholtz Association – Initiative and Networking Fund. The funders had no role in the decision to publish or prepare this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cristina García-Cáceres.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gruber, T., García-Cáceres, C. Astroglial clean-up of satiety synapses. Nat Metab 4, 505–506 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00563-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00563-3

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing