The Role of NMDA Receptors in Synaptic Stability

描述（由申请人提供）： NMDA受体与许多发育和 发生在中枢神经系统的成熟过程。我们建议 使用简化系统研究NMDA受体在突触稳定性中的作用 我们迫使突触前轴突在突触目标之间做出选择， NMDA受体或缺乏该受体的突触靶点。采用全细胞 电压钳记录我们可以测量每个目标的神经支配程度 在这种情况下，为了确定突触是否优先稳定在一个 目标或其他。我们将把电生理分析和 用荧光标记物转染的神经元成像，所述荧光标记物与前或 突触后标记这项技术将使我们能够跟踪 几个小时或几天，并将允许我们检查 与含有NMDA受体的突触相比， 缺乏受体。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The NMDA receptor has been implicated in a host of developmental and maturational processes that occur in the central nervous system. We propose to study the role of NMDA receptors in synapse stability by using a reduced system where we force presynaptic axons to choose between synaptic targets that have NMDA receptors or synaptic targets that lack the receptor. Using whole-cell voltage clamp recording we can measure the extent of innervation of each target in this situation to determine if synapses are preferentially stabilized on one target or another. We will couple the electrophysiological analysis with live imaging of neurons that are transfected with fluorescent tags coupled to pre-or postsynaptic markers. This technique will allow us to follow the behavior of individual synapses for several hours or days and will allow us to examine the turnover time of synapses that contain NMDA receptors compared to synapses that lack the receptor.