About this Neuroscience article

“Apoptotic” biochemical cascades in synaptic compartments: Roles in adaptive plasticity and neurodegenerative disorders by Mark P. Mattson; Wenzhen Duan is a Neuroscience article available to read on EtoBox.

Apoptosis is a form of cell death historically defined by morphological and biochemical changes that occur in the cell body and nucleus. However, in contrast to nonneuronal cells in which apoptosis has been most intensively studied, neurons exhibit elaborate morphologies with synaptic connections often located at sites a great distance from the cell body. Signaling events occurring in synaptic terminals are believed to play important roles in either promoting (e.g., activation of glutamate receptors in postsynaptic spines) or preventing (e.g., activation of neurotrophic factors in presynaptic terminals) neuronal cell death in various physiological and pathological settings. We have found that apoptotic biochemical cascades can be activated locally in synaptic terminals and neurites and have shown that such cascades can result in local functional and morphological alterations and can also propagate to the cell body resulting in neuronal death. Prostate apoptosis response-4 production, caspase activation, loss of plasma membrane phospholipid asymmetry, mitochondrial dysfunction, and production of factors capable of inducing nuclear chromatin condensation and fragmentation can all occ

Author

Mark P. Mattson; Wenzhen Duan

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (John Wiley & Sons); John Wiley & Sons Inc.; Wiley (ISSN 0360-4012)

Published

1999

Language

EN

Field

Neuroscience (Life Sciences)