SGER: Development of Ion Channels in Mouse Ventricular Zone Cells

填充哺乳动物大脑的神经元是在胚胎发育期间由排列在脑室的细胞产生的。这些细胞反复分裂，然后从脑室迁移到大脑本身。为了使大脑正常发育，分裂和迁移的过程正确发生是至关重要的。虽然众所周知，大脑中的成熟神经元使用电信号来处理信息，但也有一些证据表明，在早期胚胎发生过程中，大脑的分裂和迁移过程中使用了修改形式的电信号。穆迪博士将使用定量技术记录胚胎小鼠脑室内的单个细胞发出的电信号，以确定这些信号在早期大脑发育中是如何被利用的。通过使用活的胚胎脑组织切片，将有可能根据单个细胞的分裂和迁移状态来识别它们，然后确定它们能产生的电信号的确切性质。一旦了解了这一点，阻断这些信号不同方面的特定药物将被用来确定正常的分裂和迁移模式是否需要这种类型的信号。这个项目的结果将使我们了解大脑中神经元之间的正常成年电通信形式是否也以修改后的形式用于调节神经发育的关键方面。

IBN-9708656 PI: MOODY The neurons that populate the mammalian brain are generated during embryonic development from cells that line the ventricles. These cells divide repeatedly, and then migrate away from the ventricles to populate the brain itself. It is critically important that the processes of division and migration occur correctly in order for the brain to develop normally. Although it is well known that mature neurons in the brain use electrical signalling to process information, there is also some evidence that modified forms of electrical signalling are used during the processes of division and migration that create the brain during early embryogenesis. Dr. Moody will use quantitative techniques to record electrical signals from individual cells lining the ventricles of the embryonic mouse brain to determine how such signals are used in early brain development. By using living slices of embryonic brain tissue, it will be possible to identify individual cells according to their state of division and migration, and to then detemine the exact nature of the electrical signals they can generate. Once this is understood, specific drugs that block different aspects of those signals will be used to determine whether normal patterns of division and migration require this type of signalling. Results from this project will allow us to understand whether the normal adult forms of electrical communication between neurons in the brain are also used in modified form to mediate critical aspects of neural development.