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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Measuring Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis in Cultured Hippocampal Neurons
Published on: September 4, 2017
Calcium dependence of exo- and endocytotic coupling at a glutamatergic synapse
Nobutake Hosoi1, Matthew Holt, Takeshi Sakaba
1Independent Junior Research Group of Biophysics of Synaptic Transmission, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
The mechanism coupling exocytosis and endocytosis remains to be elucidated at central synapses. Here, we show that the mechanism linking these two processes is dependent on microdomain-[Ca2+](i) similar to that which triggers exocytosis, as well as the exocytotic protein synaptobrevin/VAMP. Furthermore, block of endocytosis has a limited, retrograde action on exocytosis, delaying recruitment of release-ready vesicles and enhancing short-term depression. This effect sets in so rapidly that it cannot be explained by the nonavailability of recycled vesicles. Rather, we postulate that perturbation of a step linking exocytosis and endocytosis temporarily prevents new vesicles from docking at specialized sites for exocytosis.
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