神经生物学

Calpain proteases have been extensively studied over the past 20 years but substrate specificity and activity studies have been limited to investigations using isolated calpain proteases in vitro and in the presence of calcium concentrations beyond the physiologic range found in no ...

Erythrocyte spectrin and nonerythroid spectrin (fodrin, calspectin) are major constituents of the membrane cytoskeleton, forming a two-dimensional meshwork beneath the outer cell membrane (1,2). The three-dimensional organization of the membrane cytoskeleton has been ex ...

Many types of cataracts in the lens of the eye show elevated concentrations of calcium, which could activate calpains, and thus this chapter presents the techniques specialized for measuring calpain activity in lens. Ubiquitous calpain has been assayed in lenses from man, cow, pig, rat, sheep, m ...

Circulating platelets undergo dramatic morphological changes in response to platelet agonists, resulting in attachment, spreading, secretion, and aggregation. These rapid dynamic physiological activities require a series of rapid biochemical reactions, including ty ...

An inherent consequence of calpain activation in situ is activation of the ubiquitous signal transduction kinase, protein kinase C (PKC). Whether or not one is directly interested in the effects of PKC, it may be important during experimental design and interpretation to consider that cert ...

p53 is a key regulator of the cell cycle and apoptosis which is essential for maintenance of genome integrity (1–4). It can function as a transcription factor, but other roles in DNA repair, homologous recombination and the regulation of its own mRNA translation have been proposed. p53 has also been re ...

The goals of our research program have been to understand the mecha-nism(s) responsible for the turnover of myofibrillar proteins of skeletal muscle. This understanding would be useful in development of strategies to treat muscle wasting diseases and, possibly, to augment efficiency of ...

The phenomenon of apoptosis has gone from obscurity in 1972, when it was named (1), to the limelight of over 6000 publications in 1998 alone. Originally described as a peculiar morphology of cell death, seen when that death was “physiological” or programmed, apoptosis remains most clearly deter ...

Neurotrophins are a family of growth factor proteins sharing a considerable degree of primary sequence and tertiary structure homology (1–4). Members of this protein family, including nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), and ...

Neurotrophins are required by a variety of neuronal types for their survival during development and for the maintenance of normal function in mature animals. Within the nervous system, the neurotrophins are synthesized in limited amounts in postsynaptic cells, glia, or neurons. Within ...

Neurotrophins are a family of neuronal survival and differentiation factors (1,2). The mammalian neurotrophin family consists of four members sharing 50–55% amino acid identity: nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin 3 (NT-3), and NT-4/5 ( ...

Identifying signaling molecules that participate in pathways leading from receptor activation to changes in gene expression in cells is the fundamental focus of many research endeavors. For example, neurotrophins interacting with their trk receptors mediate a number of cellular ...

Initial introduction into novel environments produces in zebrafish behaviors consistent with predator evasion, fear, and/or anxiety. This protocol is for a light/dark plus maze novel environment test utilizing two elements of those behavioral responses, thigmotaxis and light a ...

We describe a simple assay for studying and conditioning olfactory behaviors of adult zebrafish. The apparatus consists of a circular flow-through tank into which odorants can be administered in a controlled fashion. Odorants (conditioned stimuli; CS) are repeatedly paired with food ...

This protocol details simple zebrafish conditioned place preference assays for assessing reinforcing properties of drugs of abuse such as ethanol, which can be administered to the tank water. We further describe a conditioned place preference assay of stimulus-induced reinstat ...

Associative learning is a form of classical (Pavlovian) conditioning in which a neutral stimulus (e.g., the color green) is paired with a stimulus of some significance to an animal (e.g., food), such that for the animal, the color becomes synonymous with food to evoke the same innate, reflexive behavi ...

A behavioral assay of responses to chemical alarm cues can be used to test for cognitive functions related to olfaction, learning, and memory. Alarm cues are chemicals released from damaged epithelial tissue. These cues indicate the presence of predation risk because they are released only a ...

This protocol describes the construction of an automated imaging system and two assays for measuring avoidance behaviors in larval zebrafish. The first assay, called the “bouncing ball assay,” measures the response of larvae to a threatening stimulus displayed on an LCD screen. The second ...

We present a method that complements both scoring by observers and automated tracking methods for quantifying behaviors. Based on standard motion enhancement, our algorithm converts a behavioral video recording into a single image (‘videogram’) that maps the spatial distribution ...

Due to physiological and anatomical similarities to other vertebrates, zebrafish are becoming a widely used model in neurobehavioral research. With the growing popularity of zebrafish as experimental subjects, it is important to develop tools that accurately record their behav ...