Impairment of Synaptic Vesicle Exocytosis and Recycling During Neuromuscular Weakness Produced in Mice by 2,4-Dithiobiuret

2002 ◽  
Vol 88 (6) ◽  
pp. 3243-3258 ◽  
Author(s):  
You-Fen Xu ◽  
Dawn Autio ◽  
Mary B. Rheuben ◽  
William D. Atchison

Chronic treatment of rodents with 2,4-dithiobiuret (DTB) induces a neuromuscular syndrome of flaccid muscle weakness that mimics signs seen in several human neuromuscular disorders such as congenital myasthenic syndromes, botulism, and neuroaxonal dystrophy. DTB-induced muscle weakness results from a reduction of acetylcholine (ACh) release by mechanisms that are not yet clear. The objective of this study was to determine if altered release of ACh during DTB-induced muscle weakness was due to impairments of synaptic vesicle exocytosis, endocytosis, or internal vesicular processing. We examined motor nerve terminals in the triangularis sterni muscles of DTB-treated mice at the onset of muscle weakness. Uptake of FM1-43, a fluorescent marker for endocytosis, was reduced to approximately 60% of normal after either high-frequency nerve stimulation or K+depolarization. Terminals ranged from those with nearly normal fluorescence (“bright terminals”) to terminals that were poorly labeled (“dim terminals”). Ultrastructurally, the number of synaptic vesicles that were labeled with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was also reduced by DTB to approximately 60%; labeling among terminals was similarly variable. A subset of DTB-treated terminals having abnormal tubulovesicular profiles in their centers did not respond to stimulation with increased uptake of HRP and may correspond to dim terminals. Two findings suggest that posttetanic “slow endocytosis” remained qualitatively normal: the rate of this type of endocytosis as measured with FM1-43 did not differ from normal, and HRP was observed in organelles associated with this pathway- coated vesicles, cisternae, as well as synaptic vesicles but not in the tubulovesicular profiles. In DTB-treated bright terminals, end-plate potential (EPP) amplitudes were decreased, and synaptic depression in response to 15-Hz stimulation was increased compared with those of untreated mice; in dim terminals, EPPs were not observed during block withd-tubocurarine. Nerve-stimulation-induced unloading of FM1-43 was slower and less complete than normal in bright terminals, did not occur in dim terminals, and was not enhanced by α-latrotoxin. Collectively, these results indicate that the size of the recycling vesicle pool is reduced in nerve terminals during DTB-induced muscle weakness. The mechanisms by which this reduction occurs are not certain, but accumulated evidence suggests that they may include defects in either or both exocytosis and internal vesicular processing.

1980 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
S S Carlson ◽  
R B Kelly

Rabbit antisera to highly purified synaptic vesicles from the electric organ of Narcine brasiliensis, an electric ray, reveal a unique population of synaptic vesicle antigens in addition to a population shared with other electric organ membranes. Synaptic vesicle antigens were detected by binding successively rabbit antivesicle serum and radioactive goat anti-rabbit serum. To remove antibodies directed against antigens common to synaptic vesicles and other electric organ fractions, the antivesicle serum was extensively preadsorbed against an electric organ membrane fraction that was essentially free of synaptic vesicles. The adsorbed serum retained 40% of its ability to bind to synaptic vesicles, suggesting that about half of the antigenic determinants are unique. Vesicle antigens were quantified with a radioimmunoassay (RIA) that utilized precipitation of antibody-antigen complexes with Staphylococcus aureus cells. By this assay, the vesicles, detected by their acetylcholine (ACh) content and the antigens detected by the RIA, have the same buoyant density after isopycnic centrifugation of crude membrane fractions on sucrose and glycerol density gradients. The ratio of ACh to antigenicity was constant across the vesicle peaks and was close to that observed for vesicles purified to homogeneity. Even though the vesicles make up only approximately 0.5% of the material in the original homogenate, the ratio of acetylcholine to vesicle antigenicity could still be measured and also was indistinguishable from that of pure vesicles. We conclude that synaptic vesicles contain unique antigenic determinants not present to any measurable extent in other fractions of the electric organ. Consequently, it is possible to raise a synaptic vesicle-specific antiserum that allows vesicles to be detected and quantified. These findings are consistent with earlier immunohistochemical observations of specific antibody binding to motor nerve terminals.


1999 ◽  
Vol 147 (6) ◽  
pp. 1249-1260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine A. Neale ◽  
Linda M. Bowers ◽  
Min Jia ◽  
Karen E. Bateman ◽  
Lura C. Williamson

The supply of synaptic vesicles in the nerve terminal is maintained by a temporally linked balance of exo- and endocytosis. Tetanus and botulinum neurotoxins block neurotransmitter release by the enzymatic cleavage of proteins identified as critical for synaptic vesicle exocytosis. We show here that botulinum neurotoxin A is unique in that the toxin-induced block in exocytosis does not arrest vesicle membrane endocytosis. In the murine spinal cord, cell cultures exposed to botulinum neurotoxin A, neither K+-evoked neurotransmitter release nor synaptic currents can be detected, twice the ordinary number of synaptic vesicles are docked at the synaptic active zone, and its protein substrate is cleaved, which is similar to observations with tetanus and other botulinal neurotoxins. In marked contrast, K+ depolarization, in the presence of Ca2+, triggers the endocytosis of the vesicle membrane in botulinum neurotoxin A–blocked cultures as evidenced by FM1-43 staining of synaptic terminals and uptake of HRP into synaptic vesicles. These experiments are the first demonstration that botulinum neurotoxin A uncouples vesicle exo- from endocytosis, and provide evidence that Ca2+ is required for synaptic vesicle membrane retrieval.


1973 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Heuser ◽  
T. S. Reese

When the nerves of isolated frog sartorius muscles were stimulated at 10 Hz, synaptic vesicles in the motor nerve terminals became transiently depleted. This depletion apparently resulted from a redistribution rather than disappearance of synaptic vesicle membrane, since the total amount of membrane comprising these nerve terminals remained constant during stimulation. At 1 min of stimulation, the 30% depletion in synaptic vesicle membrane was nearly balanced by an increase in plasma membrane, suggesting that vesicle membrane rapidly moved to the surface as it might if vesicles released their content of transmitter by exocytosis. After 15 min of stimulation, the 60% depletion of synaptic vesicle membrane was largely balanced by the appearance of numerous irregular membrane-walled cisternae inside the terminals, suggesting that vesicle membrane was retrieved from the surface as cisternae. When muscles were rested after 15 min of stimulation, cisternae disappeared and synaptic vesicles reappeared, suggesting that cisternae divided to form new synaptic vesicles so that the original vesicle membrane was now recycled into new synaptic vesicles. When muscles were soaked in horseradish peroxidase (HRP), this tracerfirst entered the cisternae which formed during stimulation and then entered a large proportion of the synaptic vesicles which reappeared during rest, strengthening the idea that synaptic vesicle membrane added to the surface was retrieved as cisternae which subsequently divided to form new vesicles. When muscles containing HRP in synaptic vesicles were washed to remove extracellular HRP and restimulated, HRP disappeared from vesicles without appearing in the new cisternae formed during the second stimulation, confirming that a one-way recycling of synaptic membrane, from the surface through cisternae to new vesicles, was occurring. Coated vesicles apparently represented the actual mechanism for retrieval of synaptic vesicle membrane from the plasma membrane, because during nerve stimulation they proliferated at regions of the nerve terminals covered by Schwann processes, took up peroxidase, and appeared in various stages of coalescence with cisternae. In contrast, synaptic vesicles did not appear to return directly from the surface to form cisternae, and cisternae themselves never appeared directly connected to the surface. Thus, during stimulation the intracellular compartments of this synapse change shape and take up extracellular protein in a manner which indicates that synaptic vesicle membrane added to the surface during exocytosis is retrieved by coated vesicles and recycled into new synaptic vesicles by way of intermediate cisternae.


2006 ◽  
Vol 176 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Maximov ◽  
Ok-Ho Shin ◽  
Xinran Liu ◽  
Thomas C. Südhof

Central synapses exhibit spontaneous neurotransmitter release that is selectively regulated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA). We now show that synaptic vesicles contain synaptotagmin-12, a synaptotagmin isoform that differs from classical synaptotagmins in that it does not bind Ca2+. In synaptic vesicles, synaptotagmin-12 forms a complex with synaptotagmin-1 that prevents synaptotagmin-1 from interacting with SNARE complexes. We demonstrate that synaptotagmin-12 is phosphorylated by cAMP-dependent PKA on serine97, and show that expression of synaptotagmin-12 in neurons increases spontaneous neurotransmitter release by approximately threefold, but has no effect on evoked release. Replacing serine97 by alanine abolishes synaptotagmin-12 phosphorylation and blocks its effect on spontaneous release. Our data suggest that spontaneous synaptic-vesicle exocytosis is selectively modulated by a Ca2+-independent synaptotagmin isoform, synaptotagmin-12, which is controlled by cAMP-dependent phosphorylation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha Martens

Neurotransmitter release is mediated by the fusion of synaptic vesicles with the presynaptic plasma membrane. Fusion is triggered by a rise in the intracellular calcium concentration and is dependent on the neuronal SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein-attachment protein receptor) complex. A plethora of molecules such as members of the MUNC13, MUNC18, complexin and synaptotagmin families act along with the SNARE complex to enable calcium-regulated synaptic vesicle exocytosis. The synaptotagmins are localized to synaptic vesicles by an N-terminal transmembrane domain and contain two cytoplasmic C2 domains. Members of the synaptotagmin family are thought to translate the rise in intracellular calcium concentration into synaptic vesicle fusion. The C2 domains of synaptotagmin-1 bind membranes in a calcium-dependent manner and in response induce a high degree of membrane curvature, which is required for its ability to trigger membrane fusion in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, members of the soluble DOC2 (double-C2 domain) protein family have similar properties. Taken together, these results suggest that C2 domain proteins such as the synaptotagmins and DOC2s promote membrane fusion by the induction of membrane curvature in the vicinity of the SNARE complex. Given the widespread expression of C2 domain proteins in secretory cells, it is proposed that promotion of SNARE-dependent membrane fusion by the induction of membrane curvature is a widespread phenomenon.


Acta Naturae ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. N. Grigoryev ◽  
G. A. Khisamieva ◽  
A. L. Zefirov

Septins are GTP-binding proteins recognized as a component of the cytoskeleton. Despite the fact that septins are highly expressed by neurons and can interact with the proteins that participate in synaptic vesicle exocytosis and endocytosis, the role of septins in synaptic transmission and the synaptic vesicle recycling mechanisms is poorly understood. In this study, neurotransmitter release and synaptic vesicle exocytosis and endocytosis were investigated by microelectrode intracellular recording of end-plate potentials and fluorescent confocal microscopy in mouse diaphragm motor nerve endings during septin polymerization induced by forchlorfenuron application. It was shown that forchlorfenuron application reduces neurotransmission during prolonged high-frequency (20 and 50 pulses/s) stimulation. Application of pairs of short high-frequency stimulation trains showed that forchlorfenuron slows the replenishment of the readily releasable pool. Forchlorfenuron enhanced FM 1-43 fluorescent dye loading by synaptic vesicle endocytosis but decreased dye unloading from the preliminarily stained nerve endings by synaptic vesicle exocytosis. It was concluded that the septin polymerization induced by forchlorfenuron application slows the rate of synaptic vesicle recycling in motor nerve endings due to the impairment of synaptic vesicle transport.


Acta Naturae ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Abdrakhmanov ◽  
A. M. Petrov ◽  
P. N. Grigoryev ◽  
A. L. Zefirov

The transmitter release and synaptic vesicle exo- and endocytosis induced by constant current depolarization of nerve terminals were studied by microelectode extracellular recording of miniature endplate currents and fluorescent microscopy (FM 1-43 styryl dye). Depolarization of the plasma membrane of nerve terminals in the control specimen was shown to significantly increase the MEPC frequency (quantal transmitter release) and exocytotic rate (FM 1-43 unloading from the synaptic vesicles preliminarily stained with the dye), which was caused by a rise in the intracellular Ca 2+ concentration due to opening of voltage-gated Ca channels. A slight increase in the MEPC frequency and in the rate of synaptic vesicle exocytosis was observed under depolarization in case of blockade of Ca channels and chelating of intracellular Ca 2+ ions (cooperative action of Cd 2+ and EGTA-AM). The processes of synaptic vesicle endocytosis (FM 1-43 loading) were proportional to the number of synaptic vesicles that had undergone exocytosis both in the control and in case of cooperative action of Cd 2+ and EGTA-AM. A hypothesis has been put forward that Ca-independent synaptic vesicle exo- and endocytosis that can be induced directly by depolarization of the membrane exists in the frog motor terminal in addition to the conventional Ca-dependent process.


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