Do astrocytes feed neurons with lactate? · Grey Matter

Partly, and how much is debated.

Do astrocytes feed neurons with lactate?

Partly, and how much is debated. Pellerin and Magistretti proposed in 1994 that glutamate uptake makes astrocytes speed up glycolysis and export lactate, which neurons then oxidise, a neat link between synaptic activity and fuel delivery. Lactate transporters on both cells and animal studies in which astrocytic lactate supports memory consolidation back a role for it. Critics point out that neurons also take up and use glucose directly during activity, and that the measured fluxes do not add up to astrocytes supplying most neuronal energy, so the shuttle is best treated as a real but contested contribution.