scholarly journals Synapse Formation by Hippocampal Neurons from Agrin-Deficient Mice

1999 ◽  
Vol 205 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna S. Serpinskaya ◽  
Guoping Feng ◽  
Joshua R. Sanes ◽  
Ann Marie Craig
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Reichova ◽  
Fabienne Schaller ◽  
Stanislava Bukatova ◽  
Zuzana Bacova ◽  
Françoise Muscatelli ◽  
...  

AbstractOxytocin contributes to the regulation of cytoskeletal and synaptic proteins and could therefore affect the mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. Both the Prader-Willi syndrome and Schaaf-Yang syndrome exhibit autistic symptoms involving the MAGEL2 gene. Magel2-deficient mice show a deficit in social behavior that is rescued following postnatal administration of oxytocin. Here, in Magel2-deficient mice, we showed that the neurite outgrowth of primary cultures of immature hippocampal neurons is reduced. Treatment with oxytocin, but not retinoic acid, reversed this abnormality. In the hippocampus of Magel2-deficient pups, we further demonstrated that several transcripts of neurite outgrowth-associated proteins, synaptic vesicle proteins, and cell-adhesion molecules are decreased. In the juvenile stage, when neurons are mature, normalization or even overexpression of most of these markers was observed, suggesting a delay in the neuronal maturation of Magel2-deficient pups. Moreover, we found reduced transcripts of the excitatory postsynaptic marker, Psd95 in the hippocampus and we observed a decrease of PSD95/VGLUT2 colocalization in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions in Magel2-deficient mice, indicating a defect in glutamatergic synapses. Postnatal administration of oxytocin upregulated postsynaptic transcripts in pups; however, it did not restore the level of markers of glutamatergic synapses in Magel2-deficient mice. Overall, Magel2 deficiency leads to abnormal neurite outgrowth and reduced glutamatergic synapses during development, suggesting abnormal neuronal maturation. Oxytocin stimulates the expression of numerous genes involved in neurite outgrowth and synapse formation in early development stages. Postnatal oxytocin administration has a strong effect in development that should be considered for certain neuropsychiatric conditions in infancy.


2006 ◽  
Vol 174 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shernaz X. Bamji ◽  
Beatriz Rico ◽  
Nikole Kimes ◽  
Louis F. Reichardt

Neurons of the vertebrate central nervous system have the capacity to modify synapse number, morphology, and efficacy in response to activity. Some of these functions can be attributed to activity-induced synthesis and secretion of the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF); however, the molecular mechanisms by which BDNF mediates these events are still not well understood. Using time-lapse confocal analysis, we show that BDNF mobilizes synaptic vesicles at existing synapses, resulting in small clusters of synaptic vesicles “splitting” away from synaptic sites. We demonstrate that BDNF's ability to mobilize synaptic vesicle clusters depends on the dissociation of cadherin–β-catenin adhesion complexes that occurs after tyrosine phosphorylation of β-catenin. Artificially maintaining cadherin–β-catenin complexes in the presence of BDNF abolishes the BDNF-mediated enhancement of synaptic vesicle mobility, as well as the longer-term BDNF-mediated increase in synapse number. Together, this data demonstrates that the disruption of cadherin–β-catenin complexes is an important molecular event through which BDNF increases synapse density in cultured hippocampal neurons.


2007 ◽  
Vol 204 (9) ◽  
pp. 2063-2074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Younghwa Kim ◽  
Ping Zhou ◽  
Liping Qian ◽  
Jen-Zen Chuang ◽  
Jessica Lee ◽  
...  

The innate immune system relies on evolutionally conserved Toll-like receptors (TLRs) to recognize diverse microbial molecular structures. Most TLRs depend on a family of adaptor proteins termed MyD88s to transduce their signals. Critical roles of MyD88-1–4 in host defense were demonstrated by defective immune responses in knockout mice. In contrast, the sites of expression and functions of vertebrate MyD88-5 have remained elusive. We show that MyD88-5 is distinct from other MyD88s in that MyD88-5 is preferentially expressed in neurons, colocalizes in part with mitochondria and JNK3, and regulates neuronal death. We prepared MyD88-5/GFP transgenic mice via a bacterial artificial chromosome to preserve its endogenous expression pattern. MyD88-5/GFP was detected chiefly in the brain, where it associated with punctate structures within neurons and copurified in part with mitochondria. In vitro, MyD88-5 coimmunoprecipitated with JNK3 and recruited JNK3 from cytosol to mitochondria. Hippocampal neurons from MyD88-5–deficient mice were protected from death after deprivation of oxygen and glucose. In contrast, MyD88-5–null macrophages behaved like wild-type cells in their response to microbial products. Thus, MyD88-5 appears unique among MyD88s in functioning to mediate stress-induced neuronal toxicity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 856
Author(s):  
David Wegrzyn ◽  
Christine Wegrzyn ◽  
Kerry Tedford ◽  
Klaus-Dieter Fischer ◽  
Andreas Faissner

Vav proteins activate GTPases of the RhoA subfamily that regulate the cytoskeleton and are involved in adhesion, migration, differentiation, polarity and the cell cycle. While the importance of RhoA GTPases for neuronal morphology is undisputed, their regulation is less well understood. In this perspective, we studied the consequences of the deletion of Vav2, Vav3 and Vav2 and 3 (Vav2−/−, Vav3−/−, Vav2−/−/3−/−) for the development of embryonic hippocampal neurons in vitro. Using an indirect co-culture system of hippocampal neurons with primary wild-type (WT) cortical astrocytes, we analysed axonal and dendritic parameters, structural synapse numbers and the spontaneous network activity via immunocytochemistry and multielectrode array analysis (MEA). Here, we observed a higher process complexity in Vav3−/−, but not in Vav2−/− neurons after three and five days in vitro (DIV). Furthermore, an enhanced synapse formation was observed in Vav3−/− after 14 days in culture. Remarkably, Vav2−/−/3−/− double knockout neurons did not display synergistic effects. Interestingly, these differences were transient and compensated after a cultivation period of 21 days. Network analysis revealed a diminished number of spontaneously occurring action potentials in Vav3−/− neurons after 21 DIV. Based on these results, it appears that Vav3 participates in key events of neuronal differentiation.


1991 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
P L Cameron ◽  
T C Südhof ◽  
R Jahn ◽  
P De Camilli

We have reported previously that the synaptic vesicle (SV) protein synaptophysin, when expressed in fibroblastic CHO cells, accumulates in a population of recycling microvesicles. Based on preliminary immunofluorescence observations, we had suggested that synaptophysin is targeted to the preexisting population of microvesicles that recycle transferrin (Johnston, P. A., P. L. Cameron, H. Stukenbrok, R. Jahn, P. De Camilli, and T. C. Südhof. 1989. EMBO (Eur. Mol. Biol. Organ.) J. 8:2863-2872). In contrast to our results, another group reported that expression of synaptophysin in cells which normally do not express SV proteins results in the generation of a novel population of microvesicles (Leube, R. E., B. Wiedenmann, and W. W. Franke. 1989. Cell. 59:433-446). We report here a series of morphological and biochemical studies conclusively demonstrating that synaptophysin and transferrin receptors are indeed colocalized on the same vesicles in transfected CHO cells. These observations prompted us to investigate whether an overlap between the distribution of the two proteins also occurs in endocrine cell lines that endogenously express synaptophysin and other SV proteins. We have found that endocrine cell lines contain two pools of membranes positive for synaptophysin and other SV proteins. One of the two pools also contains transferrin receptors and migrates faster during velocity centrifugation. The other pool is devoid of transferrin receptors and corresponds to vesicles with the same sedimentation characteristics as SVs. These findings suggest that in transfected CHO cells and in endocrine cell lines, synaptophysin follows the same endocytic pathway as transferrin receptors but that in endocrine cells, at some point along this pathway, synaptophysin is sorted away from the recycling receptors into a specialized vesicle population. Finally, using immunofluorescent analyses, we found an overlap between the distribution of synaptophysin and transferrin receptors in the dendrites of hippocampal neurons in primary cultures before synapse formation. Axons were enriched in synaptophysin immunoreactivity but did not contain detectable levels of transferrin receptor immunoreactivity. These results suggest that SVs may have evolved from, as well as coexist with, a constitutively recycling vesicular organelle found in all cells.


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