Chloride regulation in neuronal development and epilepsy

神经元发育和癫痫中的氯调节

• 批准号: G0601503/1
• 负责人: Colin Akerman
• 金额: $ 44.86万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0601503%2F1
• 关键词: Chloride; regulation; neuronal; development; epilepsy

The nervous system is characterised by highly organised ‘circuits’ in which specific groups of nerve cells, or neurons, interconnect. The way neurons communicate depends upon their three dimensional structure and the type of connections that they form with one another. Neural circuits are laid down during development and errors at these early stages can lead to problems later in life. For instance, epilepsy and schizophrenia are just two disorders where abnormal developmental events are thought to underlie aberrant communication in the adult brain.This research focuses upon chloride, a key ion in the nervous system. It has been observed that the level of chloride inside neurons normally decreases during the period that neural circuits are developing. In contrast, neurons in the brains of epilepsy patients have abnormally high levels of chloride. Using neural tissue from rodents, the experiments in this project will examine how changes in chloride levels influence the structure and connections of growing neurons. Furthermore, it will address how molecules that control chloride levels are themselves regulated during development.Findings from this work will advance our understanding of neonatal development, and also our understanding of the cellular changes that occur in common disorders of the nervous system.

神经系统的特点是高度组织的“电路”，其中特定的神经细胞或神经元组相互连接。神经元的交流方式取决于它们的三维结构和它们彼此形成的连接类型。神经回路是在发育过程中形成的，这些早期阶段的错误可能会导致以后生活中的问题。例如，癫痫和精神分裂症只是两种被认为是成人大脑异常交流的基础的异常发育事件。已经观察到，在神经回路发育期间，神经元内的氯化物水平通常会降低。相比之下，癫痫患者大脑中的神经元具有异常高的氯化物水平。使用啮齿动物的神经组织，该项目的实验将研究氯离子水平的变化如何影响生长神经元的结构和连接。此外，它将解决如何控制氯化物水平的分子本身在发育过程中进行调节。这项工作的发现将促进我们对新生儿发育的理解，以及我们对神经系统常见疾病中发生的细胞变化的理解。