Yokoyama Osamu, Kumashiro Mari, Iriki Atsushi, Ishibashi Hidetoshi
Section of Cognitive Neurobiology, Department of Maxillofacial Biology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8549, Japan.
Mol Cell Biochem. 2006 Dec;293(1-2):47-52. doi: 10.1007/s11010-006-2493-1. Epub 2006 Sep 21.
Synaptophysin is an integral membrane protein abundant in the synaptic vesicle and is found in nerve terminals throughout the brain. It was recently suggested that synaptophysin is also involved in the modulation of activity-dependent synapse formation. In this study, we examined at the individual level whether tactile stimulation selectively influenced the synaptophysin mRNA expression level in the somatosensory cortex of rats. Anesthetized rats were caressed on the back by an experimenter's palms for 20 min and the mRNA expression levels in the somatosensory and the visual cortices 5 min afterwards were determined using quantitative PCR methodology. The synaptophysin mRNA expression level was selectively higher in the experimental group than in the control group in the somatosensory cortex but not in the visual cortex. This suggests that the mRNA expression level of synaptophysin induced by neuronal activity is related to the regulation of synapse formation or remodeling or both.
突触素是一种存在于突触小泡中丰富的整合膜蛋白，在全脑的神经末梢中均有发现。最近有研究表明，突触素也参与了依赖活动的突触形成的调节。在本研究中，我们在个体水平上检测了触觉刺激是否选择性地影响大鼠体感皮层中突触素mRNA的表达水平。实验者用手掌抚摸麻醉大鼠的背部20分钟，然后在5分钟后使用定量PCR方法测定体感皮层和视觉皮层中的mRNA表达水平。在体感皮层中，实验组的突触素mRNA表达水平选择性地高于对照组，而在视觉皮层中则没有。这表明神经元活动诱导的突触素mRNA表达水平与突触形成或重塑或两者的调节有关。
