This is the second in a series of papers that describes the use of a sensitive microculture procedure to investigate the transmitter status of sympathetic neurons. Cultured immature principal neurons, dissociated from the superior cervical ganglia of newborn rats, are known to be plastic with respect to transmitter status; under certain culture conditions, populations of neurons that display (a...

The medial septum/diagonal band of Broca complex (MSDB) is a key structure that modulates hippocampal rhythmogenesis. Cholinergic neurons of the MSDB play a central role in generating and pacing theta-band oscillations in the hippocampal formation during exploration, novelty detection, and memory encoding. How precisely cholinergic neurons affect hippocampal network dynamics in vivo, however, h...

It is well known that various markers of the cholinergic synapse are altered in Alzheimer's Disease. Much interest is currently focussing on the evaluation of the possible efficacy of certain growth factors, especially nerve growth factor (NGF), to reduce or reverse cholinergic neuronal losses. Here we report that other growth factors (epidermal growth factor and insulin-like growth factor I) a...

Nervous system maps are of critical importance for understanding how nervous systems develop and function. We systematically map here all cholinergic neuron types in the male and hermaphrodite C. elegans nervous system. We find that acetylcholine (ACh) is the most broadly used neurotransmitter and we analyze its usage relative to other neurotransmitters within the context of the entire connecto...

23 24 Nervous system maps are of critical importance for understanding how nervous 25 systemsdevelop and function. We systematically map here all cholinergic neuron types in the 26 male and hermaphrodite C.elegans nervous system. We find that acetylcholine is the most 27 broadly used neurotransmitter and we analyze its usage relative to other neurotransmitters 28 within the context of the entir...

The aim of the present study was to determine whether cholinergic increase in the size of a functional representation (collective evoked response from a large population of neurons) can be observed shortly (within an hour) after treatment onset and whether nicotinic receptors can participate in this type of modulation. Cholinergic agonist application has been found previously to increase the re...

In the first two of this series of papers, a sensitive microculture procedure was used to show that rat sympathetic neurons grown singly on small islands of heart cells release norepinephrine (NE) and/or acetylcholine (ACh). We report here the release of a third transmitter in response to stimulation of these neurons. This agent was recognized by its effect on the cocultured cardiac myocytes: a...

The central cholinergic system regulates both the circadian clock and sleep-wake cycle and may participate in the feedback control of vigilance states on neural excitability in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that houses the circadian clock. Here we investigate the mechanisms for cholinergic modulation of SCN neuron excitability. Cell-attached recordings indicate that the nonspecific choliner...

The role of protein kinase A in regulating transcription of the cholinergic gene locus, which contains both the vesicular acetylcholine transporter gene and the choline acetyltransferase gene, was investigated in PC12 cells and a protein kinase A-deficient PC12 mutant, A126.1B2, in which transcription of the gene is reduced. The site of action of protein kinase A was localized to a neuron-restr...