Glial modulation of CO2 chemosensory excitability in the retrotrapezoid nucleus of rodents.

We investigated the possibility that astrocytes modify the extracellular milieu and thereby modify the activity of central CO2 chemosensory neurons. The ability of astrocytes to modify the extracellular milieu is heterogeneously distributed among chemosensory sites that have, at least nominally, the same function. The differences in astrocytic activity may make some central chemosensory sites better attuned to the local brain tissue environment and other chemosensory sites better suited to integrate chemosensory activity from multiple sites within and outside the central nervous system.