“…Functionally, astrocytes have a vital role in maintaining, mediating and restoring neuronal function during physiologic and pathologic conditions (Araque et al, 1999; del Zoppo, 2010; Nedergaard et al, 2010). In this role, astrocytes are key in maintaining K + homeostasis (Kofuji and Newman, 2004), removal of excess glutamate (Cheung et al, 2015), local blood flow regulation (Attwell et al, 2010; Kim et al, 2015), synaptogenesis and synaptic maintenance (Franke et al, 2012), among other functions. On the other hand, astrocyte dysfunction after ischemia may exacerbate brain injury via aberrant astrocyte Ca 2+ signaling which can result in glutamate excitotoxicity (Nedergaard et al, 2010) or through the release of astrocyte-derived proteins and small molecular messengers such as ATP, TNFα, and S100β, which further increases neuroinflammation (Agulhon et al, 2012; Liu et al, 2011; Pascual et al, 2012).…”