Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Glycine is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the spinal cord and the brainstem.A glycine-mediated inhibitory neurotransmission (glycinergic transmission) is responsible for physiological functions that include motor control, afferent sensory transduction, visual and auditory transductions.Disruptions of glycinergic transmission caused by mutations to glycine receptors (GlyRs) are associated with hyperekplexia (so-called "startle disease").Despite the physiological importance of glycinergic recording by gramicidin-perforated patch-clamp verified that the neurons used in the present study were mature, in terms of glycine-induced hyperpolarizations.Overall, these results suggested that the activation of glycine receptor regulates the diffusion properties of the receptor and thereby functional glycine neurotransmission in mature neurons.Because glycine induces a hyperpolarization rather than depolarization in this matured stage, the previously proposed mechanism of glycinergic synapse formation at immature stage is insufficient to explain the results.Although the signaling mechanism is not fully elucidated, this is a novel report of activation-dependent glycinergic synapse formation in mature neurons.
Author: Yoshihisa Nakahata
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3035188689