We evaluated the shapes, numbers, and spatial distribution of astrocytes within the glial lamina, an astrocyte-rich region at the junction of the retina and optic nerve. A primary aim was to determine how the population of astrocytes, collectively, partitions the axonal space in this region. Astrocyte processes labeled with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) compartmentalize ganglion cell axons into bundles, forming “glial tubes”, and giving the glial architecture of the optic nerve head in transverse section a honeycomb appearance. The shapes of individual astrocytes were studied using transgenic mice that express enhanced green fluorescent protein in isolated astrocytes (hGFAPpr-EGFP). Within the glial lamina the astrocytes were transverse in orientation, with thick, smooth primary processes emanating from a cytoplasmic expansion of the soma. Spaces between the processes of neighboring astrocytes were spatially aligned, to form the apertures through which the bundles of optic axons pass. The processes of individual astrocytes were far-reaching – they could span most of the width of the nerve -and overlapped the anatomical domains of other near and distant astrocytes. Thus, astrocytes in the glial lamina do not tile: each astrocyte participates in ensheathing approximately one quarter of all of the axon bundles in the nerve, and each glial tube contains the processes of ~ 9 astrocytes. This raises the mechanistic question how, in glaucoma or other cases of nerve damage, the glial response can be confined to a circumscribed region where damage to axons has occurred.

Sun et al. demonstrate that STAT3 signaling is important for reactive astrocyte remodeling within the injured optic nerve head. Importantly, this reactivity preserves visual function after various optic nerve injuries, including experimental glaucoma.