Developmental Cell
Volume 30, Issue 3, 11 August 2014, Pages 309-321
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Article
Gap Junction Proteins in the Blood-Brain Barrier Control Nutrient-Dependent Reactivation of Drosophila Neural Stem Cells

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2014.05.021Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Blood-brain barrier gap junctions are required for neural stem cell reactivation

  • Gap junctions control both insulin transcription and secretion

  • Calcium oscillations in the blood-brain barrier depend on gap junctions and nutrition

  • Blood-brain barrier membrane polarization links calcium to insulin secretion

Summary

Neural stem cells in the adult brain exist primarily in a quiescent state but are reactivated in response to changing physiological conditions. How do stem cells sense and respond to metabolic changes? In the Drosophila CNS, quiescent neural stem cells are reactivated synchronously in response to a nutritional stimulus. Feeding triggers insulin production by blood-brain barrier glial cells, activating the insulin/insulin-like growth factor pathway in underlying neural stem cells and stimulating their growth and proliferation. Here we show that gap junctions in the blood-brain barrier glia mediate the influence of metabolic changes on stem cell behavior, enabling glia to respond to nutritional signals and reactivate quiescent stem cells. We propose that gap junctions in the blood-brain barrier are required to translate metabolic signals into synchronized calcium pulses and insulin secretion.

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This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).