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Projekt
Glial responses at neuronal synapses and their purinergic modulation
Antragsteller
Professor Dr. Joachim W. Deitmer
Fachliche Zuordnung
Kognitive, systemische und Verhaltensneurobiologie
Förderung
Förderung von 2004 bis 2011
Projektkennung
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 5429660
Our knowledge about the significance of glia, in particular with respect to its role for information processing in the brain, is still rather limited. One of the prime locations of this information processing are chemical synapses between neurons. In view of new findings, glial cells, and astrocytes in particular, must be included in the synaptic process as a third, integrative partner. Astrocytes, which by far outnumber neurons in the mammalian brain, often approach synaptic domains with their small perisynaptic processes. The close association of Purkinje neurons (PN) and Bergmann glia (BG) in the cerebellum, offers a favourable preparation to study neuronglia interactions at synaptic domains. Each PN, which receives a vast number of synaptic inputs, is surrounded by several BGs, whose processes project into the extensive dendritic tree of the PN and engulf synptic microdomains. We have shown that electrical stimulation of single BG cells reduces the frequency of synaptic events in the neighbouring PN. This modulation is mediated by the activation of ionotropic, non-NMDA, glutamatergic and of purinergic P2 receptors. In this project we want to elucidate the processes initiated by BG stimulation, and the mechanisms by which BG cells modulate the synaptic input to PN. It is the aim of the present study to establish, whether BG cells are directly or indirectly involved in modulating the circuit activity of the molecular layer, and thus the information processing of the cerebellar cortex.
DFG-Verfahren
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