Astrocytes in the dorsal vagal complex are not activated by systemic glucoprivation and their chemogenetic activation does not elicit homeostatic glucoregulatory responses in mice

The dorsal vagal complex (DVC) is a brainstem site regulating diverse aspects of physiology including food intake and blood glucose homeostasis. Astrocytes are purported to play an active role in regulating DVC function and, by extension, physiological parameters. Previous work has demonstrated that DVC astrocytes directly sense hormones that regulate food intake and blood glucose and are critical for their effect. In addition, DVC astrocytes in ex vivo slices respond to low tissue glucose. The response of neurons, including catecholaminergic neurons, to low glucose is conditional on intact astrocyte signalling in slice preparations suggesting astrocytes are possibly the primary sensors of glucose deprivation (glucoprivation). Based on these findings we hypothesised that if DVC astrocytes act as glucoprivation sensors in vivo they would both show a response to systemic glucoprivation and drive physiological responses to restore blood glucose. We found that 2 hours of systemic glucoprivation induced neither FOS nor glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-immunoreactivity in DVC astrocytes, specifically those in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). Furthermore, we found that while chemogenetic activation of DVC astrocytes suppressed food intake by reducing both meal size and meal number, this manipulation also suppressed food intake under conditions of glucoprivation. Chemogenetic activation of DVC astrocytes did not increase basal blood glucose nor protect against insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. In male mice chemogenetic DVC astrocyte activation did not alter glucose tolerance, in female mice the initial glucose excursion was reduced, suggesting enhanced glucose absorption. Taken together this suggests that as a whole-population DVC astrocytes do not function as glucoprivation sensors in vivo in mice. Instead, we propose that DVC astrocytes play an indispensable, homeostatic role to maintain the function of glucoregulatory neuronal circuitry.