How to Use astrocyte in a Sentence

astrocyte

noun
  • The team found that ketamine had a similar effect on the astrocytes in mouse brains.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 7 Jan. 2025
  • Getting rid of the enzyme had altered the behavior of cells called astrocytes.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 2 Sep. 2024
  • Surrounding the node of Ranvier is a glial cell called an astrocyte.
    — R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 12 Mar. 2020
  • Cajal would never have seen such wildly different forms of astrocytes, a type of glial cell, in his microscope.
    — Sharon Begley, STAT, 3 May 2018
  • Volterra believed that some astrocytes were capable of the latter.
    — Laura Dattaro, Quanta Magazine, 18 Oct. 2023
  • The protein is made mainly by astrocytes, cells that help nourish and maintain neurons, as well as by microglia, the brain’s immune cells.
    — Byjocelyn Kaiser, science.org, 12 Sep. 2024
  • The early phase was marked by inflammatory changes in the brain’s immune cells (microglia) and support cells (astrocytes).
    — New Atlas, 15 Oct. 2024
  • The team also tested human astrocytes and neurons derived from Alzheimer’s patients.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 2 Sep. 2024
  • New research suggests the reason might be due to cells called astrocytes, which make up the majority of cells in the human central nervous system.
    — Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Aug. 2023
  • The spread of the disease is really a consequence of how cells around the nerves (astrocytes and microglial cells) respond to the dying motor neurons.
    — James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2017
  • The ultrasound activates neurons and other types of brain cells such as microglia and astrocytes, which are basically there to keep the brain healthy.
    — Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 28 Mar. 2025
  • But after nine months, the organoid astrocytes reached a more mature state, resembling what Barres had observed in postnatal brain cells.
    — Quanta Magazine, 29 Aug. 2017
  • The team then focused a microscope on a slice, lit it up, and took pictures of the astrocyte to observe changes in the fluorescent protein’s brightness.
    — Saugat Bolakhe, Discover Magazine, 18 May 2022
  • In order to test how exactly the cells influence sleep need, the team focused in on astrocytes in an area of the brain called the basal forebrain, which is known for having a large impact on sleep.
    — Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Usually, astrocytes help provide energy to neurons, the cells that allow for learning and memory.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 2 Sep. 2024
  • The cells, known as astrocytes, have long been overlooked and have recently gained attention as more involved in mental processes than previously thought.
    — Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Perhaps most interestingly, the virus was all over cells known as astrocytes, which do everything from guiding neurons’ growth to ushering nutrients around the brain.
    — Quanta Magazine, 7 July 2016
  • The team thought ketamine might immediately reduce the activity of astrocytes.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 7 Jan. 2025
  • There are also some GLP-1 receptors in neurons, as well as in astrocytes, which are [brain] cells that control the extent of inflammation.
    — Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 19 July 2024
  • Within two to 12 weeks, the organoids were sprouting additional neurons, including ones found in very specific regions of the human cortex; glia cells including astrocytes; and neural stem cells.
    — Sharon Begley, STAT, 16 Apr. 2018
  • This reveals microglia as unexpected conductors in the brain's blood pressure orchestra, fine-tuning neuron-glia interactions through astrocyte pruning.
    — Pranjal Malewar, New Atlas, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Beyond the capillary wall itself are layers of supportive cells including pericytes and astrocytes, which also help to maintain the barrier and adjust its permeability.
    — Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 20 June 2023
  • The team has reported, for example, that the nutrient choline can correct lipid processing in cultured human astrocytes with APOE4.
    — Byjocelyn Kaiser, science.org, 12 Sep. 2024
  • This microscope image provided by Pasca Lab/Stanford Medicine shows a human astrocyte cell, center in yellow, and human glial cells (scattered in blue) inside the brain of a rat.
    — CBS News, 12 Oct. 2022
  • Radiation normally triggered inflammation and activation of brain immune cells, microglia and astrocytes.
    — New Atlas, 15 Oct. 2025
  • By injecting certain proteins (called transcription factors) involved in development directly into the brain, Götz and her team in Munich have figured out how to alter the function of astrocytes after an injury.
    — Jacqueline Detwiler, Popular Mechanics, 3 Oct. 2018
  • Because Volterra's team located them in structures associated with memory, the researchers plan to examine data from people with Alzheimer's disease to see whether, and how, their signaling astrocytes are altered.
    — Simon Makin, Scientific American, 21 Nov. 2023
  • The researchers are currently investigating whether astrocytes produce other signals that influence the activity of NSCs.
    — New Atlas, 15 Aug. 2024
  • For example, neural stem cells successfully differentiated into neurons and astrocytes following flattening, demonstrating that the procedure does not interfere with their biological processes.
    — The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 2 Dec. 2024
  • In collaboration with Helena Parkington, a physiologist at Monash University, the team created brain tissues containing not only neurons, but also the astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia that help neurons stay healthy and form connections.
    — WIRED, 3 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'astrocyte.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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