DNA methylation controls stemness of astrocytes in health and ischaemia.

Astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the mammalian brain and provide structural and metabolic support to neurons, regulate synapses and become reactive after injury and disease. However, a small subset of astrocytes settles in specialized areas of the adult brain where these astrocytes instead actively generate differentiated neuronal and glial progeny and are therefore referred to as neural stem cells. Common parenchymal astrocytes and quiescent neural stem cells share similar transcriptomes despite their very distinct functions.