Astrocytes play key roles in sex-specific changes in brain and behaviour caused by early-life stress
In this study, Lewis Depaauw-Holt, working in the laboratory of Dr. Ciaran Murphy-Royal at Université de Montréal, investigated how early life stress influences brain and behaviour. They specifically aimed to elucidate the role of a non-neuronal brain cell, the astrocyte. The researchers showed striking differences in the response of males and females to early-life stress, differences that they could replicate in non-stressed mice by manipulating astrocytes chemically and genetically. These results suggest a perspective shift in our models of stress by directly implicating astrocytes in the behavioural, cellular, and synaptic response to stress.
Continued – read the full story here: https://can-acn.org/brain-star-award-winner-lewis-depaauw-holt/
Read the original research article:
Depaauw-Holt, L.R., Duquenne, M., Hamane, S., Peyrard, S., Rogers, B., Ireland, C., Nasu, Y., Fulton, S., Bosson, A., Alquier, T. and Murphy-Royal, C., 2025. A divergent astrocytic response to stress alters activity patterns via distinct mechanisms in male and female mice. Nature Communications, 16(1), p.6372.
