While in AD mice astrocytes upregulate Gfap and C4b, in human AD brains astrocytes upregulate genes involved in extracellular matrix pathways including NCAN and COL5A3 and downregulate genes involved in lipid and oxidative metabolism including FABP5, HILPDA and SOD2 (Table 1) [139]. Here, NCAN is linked to Alzheimer disease.