SLC1A2 and Parkinson disease: Down-regulation of the expression of the glutamate transporter, glial glutamate transporter 1 (Glt-1), occurs in astrocytes of PD mouse models, while in R6/2 and Q175 HD mice, an increase of Kir4.1 in astrocytes enhanced the activity of Glt-1 by increasing the conductance of the plasma membrane, which promoted the uptake of glutamate by astrocytes and improved spontaneous astrocytic Ca2+ signals (Figure 3) (Tong et al., 2014; Dvorzhak et al., 2016; Jiang et al., 2016).