Fig. 1
From: Altered substrate metabolism in neurodegenerative disease: new insights from metabolic imaging
The metabolism of astrocytes (yellow), microglia (blue), neurons (pink), and oligodendrocytes (green) are intricately linked and change depending on substrate availability. The neuron relies primarily on glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and OXPHOS to meet metabolic needs. In times of low glucose, it receives lactate from astrocytes and oligodendrocytes to fuel its TCA cycle and generate reducing agents for OXPHOS via the ANLS. Neurons and astrocytes can also turn to ketone bodies produced by the liver and secreted into the blood in times of hypoglycemia. A key role of astrocytes is removal and conversion of glutamate from the synaptic cleft into glutamine which can be used in the TCA cycle by microglia and neurons