Spatial and Temporal Regulation of BDNF Action in Synaptic Plasticity

摘要

Molecules involved in synaptic plasticity need to be targeted to the appropriate subcellular domains and to be expressed at the right time during modulation of the synaptic activity. We show that the mRNAs for BDNF and TrkB have a dendritic localisation in cultured hippocampal neurons. Exposure of cells to high potassium for different times, differentially increases both the dendritic extension of BDNF and TrkB mRNAs and their protein levels in the distal portion of dendrites. The activity dependent modulation of mRNA targeting and protein accumulation in the dendrites may provide a mechanism for achieving local regulation of the activity of neurotrophins and their receptors with a time course compatible with their involvement in synaptic potentiation. Further, we put the hypothesis forward that the enhanced mRNA dendritic content for BDNF and TrkB might be involved in the synaptic tagging of a subset of dendritic branches.