Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 9 November 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5545, pp. 1296 - 1297
DOI: 10.1126/science.1066724
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

NEUROBIOLOGY:
Cholesterol--Making or Breaking the Synapse

Ben A. Barres and Stephen J. Smith

Synapses are regions where neurons meet and communicate. But how is their formation regulated in the developing and adult brain? As Smith and Barres explain in their Perspective, the answer could not be simpler. It turns out that, at least in the culture dish, a type of glial cell called an astrocyte produces the molecule cholesterol, which is taken up by neurons and then directs formation of synapses perhaps by regulating vital signaling pathways (Mauch et al.).

B. A. Barres is in the Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Fairchild Science Building, Stanford, CA 94305-5125, USA. E-mail: barres{at}stanford.edu S. J Smith is in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Beckman Center, Stanford, CA 94305-5345, USA. E-mail: sjsmith{at}stanford.edu

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)