Fig. 9.

Retraction of glial processes in rat supraoptic nucleus (SON) and consequences for diffusion and synaptic crosstalk. Upper row: Examples of diffusion curves in virgin and lactating rats. SON is anisotropic so three values of λ together with one value of α extracted from these curves are indicated on the figure. Lower row: The values shown in the upper row and electron micrographic evidence (383) indicate that reduced astrocytic coverage of SON neurons in lactating rats leads to deficient glutamate clearance, resulting in increased glutamate concentration in the ECS, increased crosstalk between synapses and increased activation of either presynaptic or postsynaptic receptors. (Adapted from Refs. 292, 359).