In Vivo Intracellular Recording Suggests That Gray Matter Astrocytes in Mature Cerebral Cortex and Hippocampus Are Electrophysiologically Homogeneous

Previous anatomical and in vitro electrophysiology studies suggest that astrocytes are heterogeneous in physiology, morphology, and biochemical content. However, the extent to which this diversity applies to in vivo conditions is largely unknown. To characterize and classify the physiological and morphological properties of cerebral cortical and hippocampal astrocytes in the intact brain, we performed in vivo intracellular recordings from single astrocytes using anesthetized mature rats. Astrocytes were classified based on their glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity and cell body locations. We analyzed morphometric measures such as the occupied volume and polarity, as well as physiological characteristics such as the mean membrane potential. These measurements did not show obvious segregation into subpopulations, suggesting that gray matter astrocytes in the cortex and hippocampus are composed of a homogeneous population in mature animals. The membrane potential of astrocytes in both cortex and hippocampus fluctuated within a few millivolts in the presence of spontaneous network activity. These membrane potential fluctuations of an astrocyte showed a significant variability that depended on the local field potential state and cell body location. We attribute the variability of the membrane potential fluctuations to local potassium concentration changes due to neuronal activity.