Glial cells: More than just a silent disciple of neural system

The dominant focus of neuroscience has long been neurons and synapses; thus, under the neuronal doctrine, the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders has come to be recognized, ignoring other types of CNS cells. Many cells, including neurons and glial cells, make up our brain: astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, NG2 cells, microglia and ependyma. Neurons were known to be the brain's basic information processing unit, so much of the neurological research was based solely on neurons. Recent research, however, show that glial cells are far more than just the "glue" binding the CNS neurons together. Glial cells provide neurons with support functions and they are much more numerous than neurons. A novel theory has shown that glial and neurons can talk and understand the same chemical language, so glial cell dysfunction results in abnormal neuro - glial interactions, which in turn impairs neuronal cell functionality. It can shed new light on the explanation of several mysterious aspects by digging up the glial functions and further comprehension of these vital cells, and the interaction between neurons and glial.

The current situation and new findings related to the CNS glial and their role in the neural network are briefly reviewed.