What Are Glial Cells?

Glial cells are a diverse group of cells. They are responsible for various different functions from protecting the brain and making it work better.

Our brain is an extraordinary machine. With almost 200 billion cells powering it, the brain sits as the guest of honor at the dinner table of our vital organs. In the pantheon of scientific curiosities, the brain is accorded a top position, with research so widespread and expansive that popular science can barely scratch the surface in covering all the new things we learn all the time.

The neurons are the stars of this vast research effort. Since their discovery by Johannes Purkinje in 1832, their electricity has been used to explain how we feel, move and engage our more abstract tendencies, such as creativity and consciousness.

However, there aren’t actually 200 billion neurons in the brain. There are only about 86 billion neurons, so what makes up the rest of the brain?

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History Of Glial Cells

Glial cells make up the other brain cells. They are a diverse group of cells that are versatile in their range of functions.

Glial cells were first discovered in 1838 by Robert Remak. He discovered Schwann cells (named after Theodor Schwann, who confirmed Remak’s discovery), which are a type of glial cell that covers the neuron’s long axon. After this initial breakthrough, numerous other glial cells were uncovered, from star-shaped astrocytes, small microglia and multi-pronged oligodendrocytes.

However, all these cells, despite their diversity, were relegated to the mere status of “glue”, the Greek origin of the word “glia”. Neuroscientists of the early 20^th century thought that glia did nothing more than support the neurons in their functions.

Types Of Glial Cells

A study looking at the social behavior of ants found that changes in neurons and glial cells allowed worker ants to transition to a Queen ant-like behavior.

This has exciting implications for research on social behavior. Looking at how brain cells and structures differ between different castes in social insects (in biology, castes refer to whether an insect is a worker, queen, reproductive male or soldier, and differs from the sociological definition of caste), along with observing different social roles in mammals and birds, might allow us to gain more insight into the evolution of life and our own social natures.

Conclusion

These studies and many more are indicative of the real impact that glial research could have on medicine. Many of these studies are wading into uncharted water, with many scientists even skeptical of their own brilliant claims. Though animal models allow us to reveal many significant biological phenomenon, things rarely go the same way in humans, or even upon replication of similar experiments.

If much of this sounds fantastical, that’s because it is. Glial cells offer the opportunity to convert our current brain research from 2-D to 3-D, and as with any addition of an entirely new dimension, there’s bound to be some distortion in our vision.

At the moment, glial cells are linked with everything from concrete diseases pathologies to large evolutionary dilemmas like consciousness. However, it is important to remember that they aren’t the only cells in the brain or body. They work in synchrony with the other cells that make up a whole organism. We need to understand glial cells by themselves and in relation with the whole if we ever want to truly unravel the countless mysteries of the brain!