Maania Ali

Glial cells were long thought to simply be the scaffolding around the nervous system. Specific glial cells known as astrocytes were recently found to have an effect on synaptic signaling. This effect raised the question of whether astrocytes may play a role in memory formation and whether this role changed in regards to sex. In order to test the effect of astrocytes on spatial working memory, the chemogenetic technique known as DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs) was used in order to activate male and female astrocytes in the prelimbic cortex through increased calcium signaling. Following DREADDs administration in rats, a spontaneous alternation task was utilized to calculate the percent alternation of arm entries and quantify the effect on memory. Tissue underwent histological analysis in order to observe the virus placement and the degree of morphological changes in the prelimbic cortex. Analysis showed that the astrocytes’ effect on memory did not significantly vary with gender. The selected ligand, C21 did however have a significant effect on the spatial working memory of females only. The astrocytes in both males and females exhibited significant morphological changes with increases in branching in the activated astrocytes. This suggests that astrocytes do have an effect on memory formation, however, observations of sex differences are inconclusive due to the differences in the effect of C21 in male and female astrocytes.