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Kira Poskanzer

@kiraposkanzer.bsky.social

Thanks to @ashleyingiosi.bsky.social for this thoughtful primer about our recent astrocyte/sleep paper!

PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · Oct 6

Astrocytes help control #sleep & arousal. @ashleyingiosi.bsky.social explores a @plosbiology.org study showing that wake-promoting #histamine affects how #astrocytes respond to other signals, reducing awake time via astroglial histamine-1-receptors 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4gRj9Ap Primer: plos.io/47at1Sj

Astroglial H1Rs influence neuromodulatory integration and arousal.

How histamine modulates arousal via astrocytes was investigated in brain slices and mice with (left; green) and without (right; purple) histamine-1-receptor (H1R) expression in astrocytes of the primary visual cortex (V1). Panels below depict, from left to right, that H1R expression in V1 astrocytes: (1) attenuates astroglial calcium (Ca²⁺) responses to norepinephrine (NE) in brain slices; (2) suppresses astroglial Ca²⁺ events during wakefulness; (3) restricts the dynamic range of extracellular adenosine (Ado) around rapid eye movement (REM) sleep transitions (N, non-rapid eye movement sleep; W, wakefulness); and (4) reduces time spent in wakefulness.

October 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM

Reposted by Kira Poskanzer

Maxine 💃🏼

@maxine.science

🧠📈 Evidence is mounting for all the ways the astrocyte network—that “second brain” woven between neurons—integrates modulatory signals to shape neural dynamics & brain state.

It was awesome to collab on this investigation on the intricate interplay between histamine and other signals in astrocytes!

Kira Poskanzer @kiraposkanzer.bsky.social · Oct 2

Congrats to Charlotte Taylor and team for dissecting how astrocyte networks integrate histamine to modulate adenosine over sleep and wake in unexpected ways:

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

@vincenttse.bsky.social @maxine.science @trishavv.bsky.social

Cortical astrocyte histamine-1-receptors regulate intracellular calcium and extracellular adenosine dynamics across sleep and wake

While histamine-1-receptor (H1R) signaling in neurons regulates arousal, these receptors are also abundant on cortical astrocytes. This study shows that astrocytic H1R signaling modulates calcium acti...

dx.plos.org

October 4, 2025 at 4:00 AM

Reposted by Kira Poskanzer

PLOS Biology

@plosbiology.org

What's the function of #histamine -1-receptors (H1Rs) on cortical astrocytes? @kiraposkanzer.bsky.social & co show that astrocytic H1R signaling modulates Ca2+ activity, extracellular adenosine & REM #sleep, revealing a key #astrocyte role in sleep-wake regulation @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4gRj9Ap

Top: Example confocal micrograph showing astrocyte expression of S100β (green), Cre-RFP (magenta), and H1R mRNA (cyan). Left: summed z-projection of all three confocal channels. Middle: RNAscope detected H1R mRNA with white and yellow arrows indicating example WT (S100β+/RFP−/H1R+) and cKO (RFP+/H1R−) soma regions of interest (ROIs), respectively. Right: Cre-RFP expression (top, magenta) and S100β expression (bottom, green). Scale bars = 10 μm. Bottom: Example confocal micrograph showing astrocytic Cre-RFP (magenta), neuronal NeuN (green), and nuclear marker DAPI (blue). Left: summed z-projection of all three confocal channels. Middle: astrocytic Cre-RFP signal with astrocyte soma ROIs overlaid. Right: NeuN signal with astrocyte soma ROIs overlaid. Scale bars = 50 μm.

October 3, 2025 at 8:21 AM

Reposted by Kira Poskanzer

Vincent Tse

@vincenttse.bsky.social

Really excited to see this work from my postgrad days come out of its "slumber" 💤 If you are interested in how astrocytes interact with neuromodulatory systems to regulate cortical states, this is for you!

Kira Poskanzer @kiraposkanzer.bsky.social · Oct 2

Congrats to Charlotte Taylor and team for dissecting how astrocyte networks integrate histamine to modulate adenosine over sleep and wake in unexpected ways:

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

@vincenttse.bsky.social @maxine.science @trishavv.bsky.social

Cortical astrocyte histamine-1-receptors regulate intracellular calcium and extracellular adenosine dynamics across sleep and wake

While histamine-1-receptor (H1R) signaling in neurons regulates arousal, these receptors are also abundant on cortical astrocytes. This study shows that astrocytic H1R signaling modulates calcium acti...

dx.plos.org

October 2, 2025 at 8:32 PM

Kira Poskanzer

@kiraposkanzer.bsky.social

Congrats to Charlotte Taylor and team for dissecting how astrocyte networks integrate histamine to modulate adenosine over sleep and wake in unexpected ways:

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

@vincenttse.bsky.social @maxine.science @trishavv.bsky.social

Cortical astrocyte histamine-1-receptors regulate intracellular calcium and extracellular adenosine dynamics across sleep and wake

While histamine-1-receptor (H1R) signaling in neurons regulates arousal, these receptors are also abundant on cortical astrocytes. This study shows that astrocytic H1R signaling modulates calcium acti...

dx.plos.org

October 2, 2025 at 6:02 PM