A1 adenosine receptor evoked Ca2+ signals in astrocytes

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Abstract In addition to neurons, glial cells make up the nervous system. These glial cells are divided into macroglial cells - including astrocytes - and microglial cells. Astrocytes have several important functions in the central nervous system, such as synthesizing transmitters and releasing them, thereby activating the surrounding neurons and astrocytes. Astrocytes do not generate action potentials, but they can transmit information to neighboring cells and react to external stimuli by employing Ca2+ dynamics. Increased neuronal activity can lead to an increased extracellular level of adenosine, reflected by a change in the metabolic state. Adenosine is a naturally occurring nucleoside distributed throughout the body as a metabolic intermediary. Its action is mediated by binding to adenosine receptors, such as the G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) A1 adenosine receptor. The binding of adenosine to the specific receptor type activates different signaling pathways in astrocytes. In our work, we studied Ca2+ signals generated upon adenosine A1 receptor activation by adding the pathway to the computational astrocyte model by Oschmann et.al (2017). We investigated the influence of the high-affinity A1 adenosine receptor in various astrocyte domains on the regulated Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of astrocytes and concluded that the receptor-dependent pathway contributes to Ca2+ signals mainly in the soma.