The astrocyte fuel kitchen

星形胶质的燃料厨房

Place · Level 3

Connected to · 1

contrast · 1

Nervous
Ketones are the backup gate on the nervous-system island, via MCT1; lactate made on site by glia is a different road. Exogenous ketone esters do not replace this kitchen.

厨房在隔壁

Stop 1/4

The kitchen is next door

Textbooks often draw the neuron fetching sugar from blood and burning it itself. A fuller picture: the cell that fetches sugar is often the astrocyte next door, and what the neuron receives is sometimes lactate the glia already made.

The moment a synapse drops glutamate, astrocyte transporters take it up. That uptake drives astrocyte glycolysis, lactate is handed across monocarboxylate transporters, and the neuron feeds it into mitochondria for . That coupling is what Pellerin and Magistretti saw in cultured cells in 1994.

Hold the division of labour: the neuron fires; glia clear the cleft and pass fuel across. The neuron is not scooping sugar from a lake of blood.

Read story

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.

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The astrocyte fuel kitchen

星形胶质的燃料厨房

Place · Level 3

Connected to · 1

contrast · 1

Nervous
Ketones are the backup gate on the nervous-system island, via MCT1; lactate made on site by glia is a different road. Exogenous ketone esters do not replace this kitchen.

厨房在隔壁

Stop 1/4

The kitchen is next door

Textbooks often draw the neuron fetching sugar from blood and burning it itself. A fuller picture: the cell that fetches sugar is often the astrocyte next door, and what the neuron receives is sometimes lactate the glia already made.

The moment a synapse drops glutamate, astrocyte transporters take it up. That uptake drives astrocyte glycolysis, lactate is handed across monocarboxylate transporters, and the neuron feeds it into mitochondria for . That coupling is what Pellerin and Magistretti saw in cultured cells in 1994.

Hold the division of labour: the neuron fires; glia clear the cleft and pass fuel across. The neuron is not scooping sugar from a lake of blood.

Read story

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.