Abstract
Astrocytes have been implicated in epilepsy development, but their contribution is under debate. In this issue, Shen et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201605046) demonstrate that early postnatal inflammatory stimuli activate toll-like receptor 4 signaling in astrocytes and promote excitatory synaptogenesis, thereby increasing seizure susceptibility in young and adult mice.