Wang Tingting, Frank C Andrew
Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C. 20007, USA.
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Iowa Neuroscience Institute, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
Cold Spring Harb Protoc. 2025 May 5;2025(5):pdb.top108393. doi: 10.1101/pdb.top108393.
The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a superb system for studying synapse function. Beyond that, the NMJ is also great for studying forms of synaptic plasticity. Over the last 25 years, NMJ neuroscientists have pioneered understanding of a form of plasticity called homeostatic synaptic plasticity, which imparts functional stability on synaptic connections. The reason is straightforward: The NMJ has a robust capacity for stability. Moreover, many strategies that the NMJ uses to maintain appropriate levels of function are mirrored at other metazoan synapses. Here, we introduce core approaches that neurophysiologists use to study homeostatic synaptic plasticity at the peripheral NMJ. We focus on methods to study a specific form of homeostatic plasticity termed presynaptic homeostatic potentiation (PHP), which is the most well-characterized one. Other forms such as presynaptic homeostatic depression and developmental forms of homeostasis are briefly discussed. Finally, we share lists of several dozen factors and conditions known to influence the execution of PHP.
神经肌肉接头(NMJ)是研究突触功能的一个卓越系统。除此之外,神经肌肉接头对于研究突触可塑性的形式也非常有用。在过去25年里,神经肌肉接头神经科学家率先理解了一种称为稳态突触可塑性的可塑性形式,它赋予突触连接功能稳定性。原因很简单:神经肌肉接头具有强大的稳定能力。此外,神经肌肉接头用于维持适当功能水平的许多策略在其他后生动物突触中也有体现。在这里,我们介绍神经生理学家用于研究外周神经肌肉接头稳态突触可塑性的核心方法。我们重点关注研究一种特定形式的稳态可塑性的方法,即突触前稳态增强(PHP),这是特征最明显的一种。还简要讨论了其他形式,如突触前稳态抑制和发育性稳态形式。最后,我们列出了几十种已知会影响PHP执行的因素和条件。