Astrocytes connect specific brain regions through plastic networks

Mice Animal procedures were performed in accordance with National Institutes of Health guidelines with the approval of NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). All animals were housed at 22–25 °C with 50–60% humidity. Animals had access to food and water ad libitum and were housed under a 12 h–12 h light–dark cycle. Experiments in Figs. 2 and 3 were on male 12-week-old C57BL/6J mice. For experiments in Fig. 4 , the Saab laboratory crossbred mice 1 expressing the tamoxifen-sensitive Cre recombinase cre-ERT2 under the control of the mouse Slc1a3 (encoding GLAST) promoter 54 with mice carrying floxed Gjb6 ( Gjb6 fl/fl ) 55 and floxed Gja1 ( Gja1 fl/fl ) 56 . Mice hemizygous for Slc1a3:cre-ERT2 were bred to noncarriers to generate Slc1a3:cre-ERT2 +/ × Gja1 fl/fl × Gjb6 fl/fl experimental mice and Gja1 fl/fl × Gjb6 fl/fl littermate controls for in vivo experiments; in vivo experiments on this genotype were balanced for sex. When primary mouse astrocytes were isolated, Slc1a3:cre-ERT2 was kept homozygous to obtain a culture in which all astrocytes could be induced through 4-hydroxytamoxifen. All mice were on a C57BL/6 background. …