Rossi F M, Pizzorusso T, Porciatti V, Marubio L M, Maffei L, Changeux J P
Laboratoire de Neurobiologie Moléculaire, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité de Recherche Associée 2182, Récepteurs et Cognition, Institut Pasteur, 28 Rue du Dr. Roux, 75724 Paris Cédex 15, France.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 May 22;98(11):6453-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.101120998. Epub 2001 May 8.
In the mammalian visual system the formation of eye-specific layers at the thalamic level depends on retinal waves of spontaneous activity, which rely on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor activation. We found that in mutant mice lacking the beta2 subunit of the neuronal nicotinic receptor, but not in mice lacking the alpha4 subunit, retinofugal projections do not segregate into eye-specific areas, both in the dorso-lateral geniculate nucleus and in the superior colliculus. Moreover, beta2-/- mice show an expansion of the binocular subfield of the primary visual cortex and a decrease in visual acuity at the cortical level but not in the retina. We conclude that the beta2 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor is necessary for the anatomical and functional development of the visual system.
在哺乳动物视觉系统中，丘脑水平眼特异性层的形成依赖于自发活动的视网膜波，而这又依赖于烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体的激活。我们发现，在缺乏神经元烟碱型受体β2亚基的突变小鼠中，而非缺乏α4亚基的小鼠中，视路投射在背外侧膝状核和上丘中都不会分离到眼特异性区域。此外，β2基因敲除小鼠的初级视皮层双眼视野扩大，皮层水平的视敏度下降，但视网膜水平未出现这种情况。我们得出结论，烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体的β2亚基对于视觉系统的解剖学和功能发育是必需的。
