Kira Poskanzer
@kiraposkanzer.bsky.social
590 followers 520 following 41 posts
Venture Science @Astera. Translational science @ArcadiaScience. Associate Professor @UCSF. Astrocytes and neurons.
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kiraposkanzer.bsky.social
Thanks to @ashleyingiosi.bsky.social for this thoughtful primer about our recent astrocyte/sleep paper!
plosbiology.org
Astrocytes help control #sleep & arousal. @ashleyingiosi.bsky.social explores a @plosbiology.org study showing that wake-promoting #histamine affects how #astrocytes respond to other signals, reducing awake time via astroglial histamine-1-receptors 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4gRj9Ap Primer: plos.io/47at1Sj
Astroglial H1Rs influence neuromodulatory integration and arousal.

How histamine modulates arousal via astrocytes was investigated in brain slices and mice with (left; green) and without (right; purple) histamine-1-receptor (H1R) expression in astrocytes of the primary visual cortex (V1). Panels below depict, from left to right, that H1R expression in V1 astrocytes: (1) attenuates astroglial calcium (Ca²⁺) responses to norepinephrine (NE) in brain slices; (2) suppresses astroglial Ca²⁺ events during wakefulness; (3) restricts the dynamic range of extracellular adenosine (Ado) around rapid eye movement (REM) sleep transitions (N, non-rapid eye movement sleep; W, wakefulness); and (4) reduces time spent in wakefulness.
Reposted by Kira Poskanzer
maxine.science
🧠📈 Evidence is mounting for all the ways the astrocyte network—that “second brain” woven between neurons—integrates modulatory signals to shape neural dynamics & brain state.

It was awesome to collab on this investigation on the intricate interplay between histamine and other signals in astrocytes!
Reposted by Kira Poskanzer
plosbiology.org
What's the function of #histamine -1-receptors (H1Rs) on cortical astrocytes? @kiraposkanzer.bsky.social & co show that astrocytic H1R signaling modulates Ca2+ activity, extracellular adenosine & REM #sleep, revealing a key #astrocyte role in sleep-wake regulation @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4gRj9Ap
Top: Example confocal micrograph showing astrocyte expression of S100β (green), Cre-RFP (magenta), and H1R mRNA (cyan). Left: summed z-projection of all three confocal channels. Middle: RNAscope detected H1R mRNA with white and yellow arrows indicating example WT (S100β+/RFP−/H1R+) and cKO (RFP+/H1R−) soma regions of interest (ROIs), respectively. Right: Cre-RFP expression (top, magenta) and S100β expression (bottom, green). Scale bars = 10 μm. Bottom: Example confocal micrograph showing astrocytic Cre-RFP (magenta), neuronal NeuN (green), and nuclear marker DAPI (blue). Left: summed z-projection of all three confocal channels. Middle: astrocytic Cre-RFP signal with astrocyte soma ROIs overlaid. Right: NeuN signal with astrocyte soma ROIs overlaid. Scale bars = 50 μm.
Reposted by Kira Poskanzer
vincenttse.bsky.social
Really excited to see this work from my postgrad days come out of its "slumber" 💤 If you are interested in how astrocytes interact with neuromodulatory systems to regulate cortical states, this is for you!
kiraposkanzer.bsky.social
Important to be very careful about ambient light. Definitely email for specific info, and I can connect you to first author Michelle, too.
kiraposkanzer.bsky.social
Unexpected glia reference alert!