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Published on: November 16, 2010
Thrombospondin 1 accelerates synaptogenesis in hippocampal neurons through neuroligin 1
1Department of Biochemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Abstract:
In cultured rat hippocampal neurons, we found that thrombospondin 1 (TSP1) increased the speed of synapse formation in young neurons, but not the final density of synapses in mature neurons. TSP1 interacted with neuroligin 1 (NL1) and application of the NL1 extracellular domain blocked TSP1-induced synaptogenesis. Furthermore, knocking down endogenous NL1 inhibited TSP1's effect. Our results indicate that TSP1 accelerates the speed of synaptogenesis through NL1 in hippocampal neurons.
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