Glial ⇔ Neuronal Signaling, 2004

Glial Neuronal Signaling fills a need for a monograph/textbook to be used in advanced courses or graduate seminars aimed at exploring glial-neuronal interactions. Even experts in the field will find useful the authoritative summaries of evidence on ion channels and transporters in glia, genes involved in signaling during development, metabolic cross talk and cooperation between astrocytes and neurons, to mention but a few of the timely summaries of a wide range of glial-neuronal interactions.
The chapters are written by the top researchers in the field of glial-neuronal signaling, and cover the most current advances in this field. The book will also be of value to the workers in the field of cell biology in general.
When we think about the brain we usually think about neurons. Although there are 100 billion neurons in mammalian brain, these cells do not constitute a majority. Quite the contrary, glial cells and other non-neuronal cells are 10-50 times more numerous than neurons. This book is meant to integrate the emerging body of information that has been accumulating, revealing the interactive nature of the brain's two major neural cell types, neurons and glia, in brain function.

Preface. List of contributors. 1. The glial-neuronal interactions and signaling: an introduction; S. Baltan Tekkök, B.R. Ransom. 2. Gene function in glial-neuronal interactions; L. Soustelle, A. Giangrande. 3. Structural association of glia with the various compartments of neurons; A. Reichenbach, A. Derouiche, J. Grosche, M. Hanani. 4. Morphological plasticity of astroglial/neuronal interactions: functional implications; G.I. Hatton. 5. Astroglia as a modulation interface between meninges and neurons; F. Mercier. 6. Expression and possible functions of glutamate and GABA receptors in glial cells from the hippocampus; Min Zhou, H.K. Kimelberg. 7. Ion channels in astrocytes; G. Seifert, C. Steinhäuser. 8. Specialized channels in astrocytes; K.A. Parkerson, H. Sontheimer. 9. Glutamate uptake by astroglia; D.E. Bergles, J.D. Rothstein. 10. pH regulation and acid/base-mediated transport in glial cells; J.W. Deitmer. 11. Glial-neuronal interactions and brain energy metabolism; A.M. Brown, S. Baltan Tekkök, B.R. Ransom. 12. Calcium signaling in glia; H. Kettenmann, C.G. Schipke. 13. Astrocyte gap junctions and glutamate-induced neurotoxicity; C. Giaume, W. Même, A. Koulakoff. 14. Mechanism and significance of astrocytic Ca2+ signaling; G. Arcuino, M. Cotrina, M. Nedergaard. 15. Glutamate-mediated bi-directional signaling between neurons and astrocytes; V. Parpura. 16.The regulated release of transmitters from astrocytes; D.S. Evanko, Jai-Yoon Sul, Qi Zhang, P.G. Haydon. 17. Role of astrocytes in the formation, maturation and maintenance of synapses; M. Slezak, F.W. Pfrieger. Index. Accompanying CD contains electronic files of all figures, including color, tables and movies: inside back cover.