ArticlePLoS biology2019
Large-scale death of retinal astrocytes during normal development is non-apoptotic and implemented by microglia.
Article in PLoS biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 100 citations in OpenAlex.
- Glial Cell Activation and Immune Responses in Glaucoma: A Systematic Review of Human Postmortem Studies of the Retina and Optic Nerve.Aging and disease · 2024Pooled it
- The m 6 A writer VIRMA regulates the developmental elimination of retinal astrocytes and retinal vascular integrity maintenance.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Smarcc1 drives optic stalk patterning and optic nerve head astrocyte differentiation.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Blocking apoptosis promotes survival and alters developmental dynamics of human retinal ganglion cells in retinal organoids.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Retinal Astrocytes: Key Coordinators of Developmental Angiogenesis and Neurovascular Homeostasis in Health and Disease.Biology · 2026Review
- Phosphatidylserine exposure by developing astrocytes initiates microglia-mediated developmental cell death.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Early Life Injury Alters Spinal Astrocyte Development.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Development of Retinal Astroglia.Annual review of vision science · 2025Review
- Neuroinflammation-A Crucial Factor in the Pathophysiology of Depression-A Comprehensive Review.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- Microglial depletion decreases Müller cell maturation and inner retinal vascular density.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2025Article
- Microglial mechanisms of viable retinal ganglion cell elimination.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2025Article
- Retinal ganglion cell circuits and glial interactions in humans and mice.Trends in neurosciences · 2024Review
- Article
- Article
- The molecular determinants of microglial developmental dynamics.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2024Review
- An Update to Biomechanical and Biochemical Principles of Retinal Injury in Child Abuse.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Early Alterations in Inner-Retina Neural and Glial Saturated Responses in Lens-Induced Myopia.Translational vision science & technology · 2024Article
- Temporal-spatial Generation of Astrocytes in the Developing Diencephalon.Neuroscience bulletin · 2024Article
- Astrocyte Development in the Rodent.Advances in neurobiology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Naturally occurring cell death is a fundamental developmental mechanism for regulating cell numbers and sculpting developing organs. This is particularly true in the nervous system, where large numbers of neurons and oligodendrocytes are eliminated via apoptosis during normal development. Given the profound impact of death upon these two major cell populations, it is surprising that developmental death of another major cell type-the astrocyte-has rarely been studied. It is presently unclear whether astrocytes are subject to significant developmental death, and if so, how it occurs. Here, we address these questions using mouse retinal astrocytes as our model system. We show that the total number of retinal astrocytes declines by over 3-fold during a death period spanning postnatal days 5-14. Surprisingly, these astrocytes do not die by apoptosis, the canonical mechanism underlying the vast majority of developmental cell death. Instead, we find that microglia engulf astrocytes during the death period to promote their developmental removal. Genetic ablation of microglia inhibits astrocyte death, leading to a larger astrocyte population size at the end of the death period. However, astrocyte death is not completely blocked in the absence of microglia, apparently due to the ability of astrocytes to engulf each other. Nevertheless, mice lacking microglia showed significant anatomical changes to the retinal astrocyte network, with functional consequences for the astrocyte-associated vasculature leading to retinal hemorrhage. These results establish a novel modality for naturally occurring cell death and demonstrate its importance for the formation and integrity of the retinal gliovascular network.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.