MONITORING CHANGES IN ACH RECEPTORS IN LIVING ANIMALS

这些研究的目的是为了更好地了解 突触竞争中的突触后乙酰胆碱受体， 发生在脊椎动物的神经肌肉接头处。 突触竞争， 这会导致在出生后的发育过程中， 早期建立的突触，是一个基本的，但知之甚少的 整个神经系统发育过程中发生的， 也在学习和记忆的形成过程中。 神经肌肉接头 提供了无与伦比的进入底层机制的途径。 比如说， 因为这是为数不多的可以长期观察到的突触之一 在活的动物中，有可能跟踪动态事件， 突触竞争直接发生在该突触的原位。 先前的工作已经 这表明突触后受体在突触形成过程中以一种重要的方式受到调节， 突触竞争 在这些研究中， 随后在活体动物中使用复杂的图像处理和其他 技术，将允许受体重排进行分析。 它 希望这些实验能帮助改变 突触竞争的理论问题转化为细胞 生物学

The goal of these studies is to better understand the role of postsynaptic acetylcholine receptors in the synaptic competition that occurs at the vertebrate neuromuscular junction. Synaptic competition, which leads to the loss during postnatal development of some of the synapses established earlier, is a fundamental but poorly understood process occurring throughout the developing nervous system and perhaps also during learning and memory formation. The neuromuscular junction offers unparalleled access into the underlying mechanisms. For example, because this is one of very few synapses that can be observed over time in living animals, it is possible to follow dynamic events such as synaptic competition directly at this synapse in situ. Previous work has suggested postsynaptic receptors are regulated in an important way during synaptic competition. In these studies synaptic competition will be followed in living animals using sophisticated image processing and other techniques that will permit receptor rearrangements to be analyzed. It is hoped that these experiments will help transform the largely theoretical questions of synaptic competition into questions of cell biology.