SEMINAR 3

NEUROGLIA: INTRODUCTION
AND TYPES

PRESENTER:
TOOBA TAHREEM KHAN
 NEUROGLIA
• Commonly called glia

• Several varieties of non-excitable groups of cells, intimately related to neurons of CNS

and their processes

• Generally smaller than neurons and,

• Comprise about half the total volume of the brain and spinal cord.

• The four types of neuroglial cells are (1) astrocytes, (2) oligodendrocytes, (3) microglia,
and (4) ependyma
 ASTROCYTES

• Have small cell bodies with branching cytoplasmic processes that extend in all
directions.

• Fibrous astrocytes • Protoplasmic (or velate) astrocytes

• found mainly in the white matter, where
their processes pass between the nerve
fibers.
• Processes- long, slender, smooth, and
not much branched.
• The cell bodies and processes contain
many coarse bundles of intermediate
filaments composed of glial fibrillary
acidic protein (GFAP) in their
cytoplasm.
• found mainly in the gray matter, where
their processes pass between the nerve
cell bodies
• Processes - shorter, thicker, and more
branched and flattened to form delicate
lamellae around the terminal branches of
axons, dendrites, and synapses.
• Cytoplasm contains fewer filaments.
• Müller cells (in the retina)
• Many processes of astrocytes end in expansions on blood vessels (perivascular feet), where
they form an almost complete covering on the external surface of capillaries, (role in blood-
brain barrier & passage of substances b/w capillaries and neurons).

• Large numbers of astrocytic processes are interwoven at the outer and inner surfaces of the
CNS, forming the outer and inner glial limiting membrane.
• Thus, the outer glial limiting membrane is found beneath the pia mater, and the inner glial
limiting membrane lies beneath the ependyma.

• Corpora amylacea- spherical bodies (25 to 50 μm), seen in the normal CNS of most middle-
aged and elderly people. No interference with function neither causing any disease.
• Formed by accumulation of glycoproteins and lipoproteins within processes of astrocytes.
• In the embryo, they serve as a scaffolding for the migration of immature neurons.

• By covering the synapses, they serve as electrical insulators preventing axon terminals from
influencing neighboring and unrelated neurons. Also forms barriers for the spread of
neurotransmitters released at synapses.

• Also serve as phagocytes by taking up degenerating synaptic axon terminals. Following the
death of neurons due to disease, astrocytes proliferate and fill in the spaces previously
occupied by the neurons, a process called replacement gliosis.

• Because astrocytes are linked together by gap junctions, they enable tons to pass from one
cell to another without entering the extracellular space.

• Recent research has suggested that astrocytes secrete cytokines that regulate the activity of
Immune cells entering the nervous system in disease
FIG: Photomicrograph of a section of the FIG: Photomicrograph of a protoplasmic
gray matter of the spinal cord showing astrocyte in the cerebral cortex.
fibrous astrocytes. Ref: Snell’s Neuroanatomy, 8th edition
Ref: Snell’s Neuroanatomy, 8th edition
 OLIGODENDROCYTES

• Have small cell bodies, small nuclei, few long, thin processes with microtubules.
• Cytoplasm does not contain filaments and glycogen; conspicuous because of its high
electron density due to many ER and polyribosomes.

• Interfascicular oligodendrocytes occur in rows among myelinated axons, where their

cytoplasmic processes form and remain continuous with the myelin sheaths.

• Satellite oligodendrocytes are closely associated with the cell bodies of some large
neurons.

• A third type of oligodendrocyte, which does not form myelin, has cytoplasmic processes
that contact the nodes of Ranvier in white matter, alongside processes of astrocytes.
• Oligodendrocytes are responsible for the formation of the myelin sheath of nerve fibers
in the CNS.

• Because oligodendrocytes have several processes, they can each form several internodal
segments of myelin on the same or different axons. A single oligodendrocyte can form as
many as 60 internodal segments.

• Myelination begins at about the 16th week of IUL and continues postnatally until all the
major nerve fibers are myelinated by the time the child is walking.

• Oligodendrocytes also surround nerve cell bodies (satellite oligodendrocytes) and are
thought to influence the biochemical environment of neurons.
FIG: Photomicrograph of a group FIG: a single oligodendrocyte whose processes
of oligodendrocytes are continuous with the myelin sheaths of four
Ref: Snell’s Neuroanatomy, 8th edition nerve fibers of CNS.
Ref: Snell’s Neuroanatomy, 8th edition
DEV OF NEUROGLIA

• The first glial cells, known as radial glia, develop alongside the first neurons (4-20
week), having cytoplasmic processes that extend from the lumen to the outside
surface of the neural tube.

• The processes of radial glia guide the migration of the young neurons.

• Most astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, however, are generated from the

neuroepithelium during the fetal period.

• Mature glial cells are visible with classical staining methods by 19 weeks, but some
can be detected by immunohistochemical techniques (GFAP) as early as 7 weeks.