Totterdell S, Meredith G E
Department of Pharmacology, Oxford University, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3QT, UK.
Neuroscience. 2005;135(3):907-13. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.06.047. Epub 2005 Aug 19.
Alpha-synuclein is a synaptic associated protein that is found throughout the brain. Although its function is not fully understood, various roles have been proposed, including the mobilization of synaptic vesicles and plasticity. However, interest in this molecule is mainly focused on its role in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, where it is a major component in cellular inclusions. Although it is widely accepted that alpha-synuclein is distributed to terminals and fibers throughout the brain, the identity of the pathways that contain this protein is not known. To address this issue, we combined immunocytochemistry with anterograde tract-tracing in mouse to identify the projections that are alpha-synuclein immunopositive. We find that it is present in corticostriatal, nigrostriatal and striatonigral terminals. Our data support the concept that alpha-synuclein is normally present in at least some of the terminals of inclusion-forming neurons, but that it is also present in the axonal boutons of neurons that do not apparently accumulate this protein pathologically.
α-突触核蛋白是一种在全脑均有发现的突触相关蛋白。尽管其功能尚未完全明确，但已提出了多种作用，包括突触小泡的移动和可塑性。然而，对该分子的关注主要集中在其在帕金森病等神经退行性疾病中的作用，在这些疾病中它是细胞内含物的主要成分。尽管人们普遍认为α-突触核蛋白分布于全脑的终末和纤维，但含有该蛋白的通路的具体情况尚不清楚。为解决这一问题，我们将免疫细胞化学与小鼠顺行束路追踪相结合，以鉴定α-突触核蛋白免疫阳性的投射。我们发现它存在于皮质纹状体、黑质纹状体和纹状体黑质终末。我们的数据支持这样的概念，即α-突触核蛋白通常存在于至少一些形成内含物的神经元的终末中，但它也存在于那些在病理上显然不会积累该蛋白的神经元的轴突终扣中。
