{"id":228421,"date":"2026-01-06T05:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/astrocyte-ccn1-stabilizes-neural-circuits-in-the-adult-brain"},"modified":"2026-01-06T05:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:20:13","slug":"astrocyte-ccn1-stabilizes-neural-circuits-in-the-adult-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/astrocyte-ccn1-stabilizes-neural-circuits-in-the-adult-brain","title":{"rendered":"Astrocyte CCN1 stabilizes neural circuits in the adult brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In early life, astrocytes help to mold neural pathways in response to the environment. In adulthood, however, those cells curb plasticity by secreting a protein that stabilizes circuits, according to a mouse study published last month in Nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a new and unique take on the field,\u201d says Ciaran Murphy-Royal, assistant professor of neuroscience at Montreal University, who was not involved in the study. Most research focuses on how glial cells drive plasticity but \u201cnot how they apply the brakes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Astrocytes promote synaptic remodeling during the development of sensory circuits by secreting factors and exerting physical control\u2014in humans, a single astrocyte can clamp onto 2 million synapses, previous studies suggest. But the glial cells are also responsible for shutting down critical periods for vision and motor circuits in mice and fruit flies, respectively.<\/p>\n

It has been unclear whether this loss of plasticity can be reversed. Some evidence hints that modifying the neuronal environment\u2014through matrix degradation or transplantation of young neurons\u2014can rekindle flexibility in adult brains.<\/p>\n

The new findings confirm that in adulthood, plasticity is only dormant, rather than lost entirely, says Nicola Allen, professor of molecular neurobiology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and an investigator on the new paper. \u201cNeuron<\/i>s don\u2019t lose an intrinsic ability to remodel, but that process is controlled by secreted factors in the environment,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Specifically, astrocytes orchestrate that dormancy by releasing CCN1, a protein that stabilizes circuits by prompting the maturation of inhibitory neurons and glial cells, Allen\u2019s team found. The findings suggest that astrocytes have an active role in stabilizing adult brain circuits.<\/p>\n

The loss of plasticity in adulthood is often seen as a \u201csad feature of getting older,\u201d says Laura Sancho Fernandez, project manager in Guoping Feng\u2019s lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who worked on the study as a postdoctoral researcher in Allen\u2019s lab. \u201cBut it\u2019s really important for maintaining stable representations and circuits in the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading \u201cAstrocyte CCN1 stabilizes neural circuits in the adult brain\u201d | ><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In early life, astrocytes help to mold neural pathways in response to the environment. In adulthood, however, those cells curb plasticity by secreting a protein that stabilizes circuits, according to a mouse study published last month in Nature. \u201cIt\u2019s a new and unique take on the field,\u201d says Ciaran Murphy-Royal, assistant professor of neuroscience at [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}