神经生物学

The neurotransmitter amines, dopamine (DA), norepinephrine (NE), epinephrine (EPI), and serotonin (5-hydroxytrypt-amine, 5-HT) are continuously released and destroyed at various rates, yet their content in neuronal tissue remains relatively constant. Thus, it is not possible to ...

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT), was discovered as a serum factor that exerts tonic effects on blood vessels; its chemical structure was elucidated in 1948. The compound gained wide interest among pharmacologists, and in a short time a great number of in vitro and in vivo pharmacologic ...

There are several dopaminergic pathways present in mammalian brain (Ungerstedt, 1971a, b, c, d; Schultz, 1982). Perhaps the most studied of these is the nigrostriatal pathway, which arises from pigmented cell bodies in the zona compacta of the substantia nigra and projects rostrally to the neo ...

Synaptic vesicle endocytosis (SVE) is a critical mechanism by which synaptic transmission is regulated and maintained at presynaptic boutons. Small molecules that target SVE may prove to be useful not only for basic research into synaptic function but also in treating diseases that invo ...

Regulated exocytosis is a fundamental event in specialized secretory organs that has been primarily studied in in vitro and ex vivo model systems. The recent application of intravital microscopy to image subcellular structures in vivo has enabled researchers to investigate the mach ...

A number of approaches have been developed during the last decades to assess exocytosis in neuronal, endocrine, and other secretory cells. A detailed description of a selection of the methods that have been adapted to study regulated exocytosis in endocrine tissue slices is provided in this c ...

Exocytosis is a fundamental process utilized by all eukaryotic organisms; this elegantly efficient process mediates such diverse functions as fertilization, synaptic transmission, and wound healing. Membrane fusion, the defining step of this process, has been well conserved th ...

Here we discuss the useful properties of a preparation of isolated neurosecretory nerve terminals obtained from mammalian neurohypophyses (posterior pituitaries). These nerve terminals release the two neuropeptides, oxytocin and vasopressin, which are easily assayed by ra ...

Many methods have been developed for the study of exo- and endocytosis. One of the most elegant consists of cellular membrane capacitance measurements which reflect membrane area changes due to fusion or fission of secretory vesicles. This parameter can be monitored directly by the electr ...

The pancreatic beta cells are highly sensitive to the glucose concentration, and the minute to minute regulation of insulin secretion by glucose occurs at the level of exocytosis of insulin, transcriptional rate of the insulin gene, translation of the mRNA, and processing of the proinsulin to ...

Regulated exocytosis is the process of secretion in specialized cells. Decades of intensive research have defined the molecules that drive the process of membrane fusion, as well as a plethora of accessory factors that shape and modulate the exocytotic function. As regulated exocytosis ...

Understanding how signaling molecules are released from cells is essential for furthering our knowledge of the basic biological mechanisms controlling many significant biological pathways. These molecules, including neurotransmitters, hormones, growth factors, and p ...

Exocytosis proceeds through distinct stages. Based on morphological and functional criteria, they can be classified as pre- and hemifusion, fusion, and postfusion. During the prefusion stage, plasma and vesicle membranes approach each other. During the hemifusion stage, the outer m ...

Neurons use Ca2+-triggered exocytosis of synaptic vesicles for interneuronal communication. SNARE proteins and fusion regulatory factors play key roles in the exocytosis. In vitro fusion assays using reconstituted proteoliposomes have been widely used for studying the funct ...

We describe here the potential of viral-mediated gene transfer for the modeling and treatment of Huntington’s disease, focusing in particular on strategies for the tissue-specific targeting of various CNS cells. The protocols described here cover the design of lentiviral vectors, st ...

The use of viral-mediated gene transfer in animal behavioral experiments has become very popular over the last decade. Altering gene regulation and assessing subsequent behavior can be a useful tool in unraveling a specific gene’s contributions to complex behavioral processes such as ...

Gene therapy is a promising future tool for treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and several different strategies are currently being evaluated. Although many of these strategies have shown promising results in animal models of PD and parkinsonian patients, some have been less effecti ...

Although our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie drug addiction have advanced significantly over the past few decades, the lack of efficacious treatments for this debilitating disorder suggest that there is much work still to be done to clarify the role of specific cells and circ ...

The ability to identify neurons that are involved in the acquisition and encoding of a specific memory can facilitate efforts to understand the neuronal and circuit mechanisms that underlie memory formation. In this chapter, we outline a method whereby a population of neurons in the lateral a ...

Neurons display strong plasticity of their cellular properties, especially by modulation of their synaptic inputs. The development of viral vectors as biological tools has been extremely useful to molecularly manipulate protein expression in the rodent brain for a better underst ...