Innervation of Purkinje cells (PCs) by multiple climbing fibers (CFs) is refined into mono-innervation during the first three postnatal weeks of rodents' lives. In this review article, we will integrate the current knowledge on developmental process and mechanisms of CF synapse elimination. In the 'creeper' stage of CF innervation (postnatal day 0 (P0)∼), CFs creep among PC somata to form trans...

Polyphenols such as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and resveratrol have received a great deal of attention because they may contribute to the purported neuroprotective action of the regular consumption of green tea and red wine. Many studies, including those published by our group, suggest that this protective action includes their abilities to prevent the neurotoxic effects of beta-amyloid, a...

Hsp90 (heat-shock protein 90) is one of the most important molecular chaperones in eukaryotes. Hsp90 facilitates the maturation, activation or degradation of its client proteins. It is now well accepted that both ATP binding and co-chaperone association are involved in regulating the Hsp90 chaperone machinery. However, other factors such as post-translational modifications are becoming increasi...

A variety of diacylglycerol (DG) molecular species are produced in stimulated cells. Conventional (α, βII and γ) and novel (δ, ε, η and θ) protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms are known to be activated by DG. However, a comprehensive analysis has not been performed. In this study, we analyzed activation of the PKC isozymes in the presence of 2-2000 mmol% 16:0/16:0-, 16:0/18:1-, 18:1/18:1-, 18:0/20:4...

Between 25-40% of neurons in laminae I-III are GABAergic, and some of these express neuropeptide Y (NPY). We previously reported that NPY-immunoreactive axons form numerous synapses on lamina III projection neurons that possess the neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1r). The aims of this study were to determine the proportion of neurons and GABAergic boutons in this region that contain NPY, and to look f...

Normal aging is associated with impairments in cognition, especially learning and memory. However, major individual differences are known to exist. Using the classical Morris Water Maze (MWM) task, we discriminated a population of 24-months old Long Evans aged rats in two groups--memory-impaired (AI) and memory-unimpaired (AU) in comparison with 6-months old adult animals. AI rats presented def...

Background Neuropathic pain is a major pathology of the central nervous system associated with neuroinflammation. Ryk (receptor-like tyrosine kinase) receptors act as repulsive axon-guidance molecules during development of central nervous system and neural injury. Increasing evidence suggests the potential involvement of Wnt/Ryk (wingless and Int) signaling in the pathogenesis of neuropathic pa...

NGF binding to its protein kinase receptor TrkA is known to induce neurite outgrowth and neural cell differentiation. The plasma membrane expansion, necessary for the process, was shown to be contributed by the VAMP7-dependent exocytosis of endocytic vesicles. Working with wild-type PC12 (wtPC12), a cell model widely used to investigate NGF-induced neurite outgrowth, we found that a few hours o...

Molecular mechanisms involved in the replenishment of the fast neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA are poorly understood. Glutamine sustains their generation. However, glutamine formation from the recycled transmitters is confined to glial processes and requires facilitators for its translocation across the glial and neuronal membranes. Indeed, glial processes are enriched with the system N tr...

Increasing evidence suggests that olfactory dysfunction is an endophenotype of schizophrenia, and thus the olfactory system can be studied both in relation to this sensory dysfunction and also as a means of examining pathophysiologic mechanisms of schizophrenia. In this study, we examined human olfactory neuroepithelial (ON) biopsy tissues and their in vitro culture cells for ligand-induced gua...