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Section: New Results

The influence of topology on calcium wave propagation in 3D astrocyte networks

H. Berry, Jules Lallouette (Beagle)

Glial cells are non-neuronal cells that constitute the majority of cells in the human brain and significantly modulate information processing via permanent cross-talk with the neurons. Astrocytes are also themselves inter-connected as networks and communicate via chemical wave propagation. How astrocyte wave propagation depends on the local properties of the astrocyte networks is however unknown. We have investigated the influence of the characteristics of the network topology on wave propagation [38] . Using a model of realistic astrocyte networks ($>1000$ cells embedded in a 3D space), we show that the major classes of propagations reported experimentally can be emulated by a mere variation of the topology. Our study indicates that calcium wave propagation is favored when astrocyte connections are limited by the distance between the cells, which means that propagation is better when the mean-shortest path of the network is larger. This unusual property sheds new light on consistent reports that astrocytes in vivo tend to restrict their connections to their nearest neighbors.