Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Visualizing Shifts on Neuron-Glia Circuit with the Calcium Imaging Technique
Published on: April 8, 2022
Nonsynaptic and nonvesicular ATP release from neurons and relevance to neuron-glia signaling
1Nervous Systems Development and Plasticity Section, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, United States. fieldsd@mail.nih.gov
Abstract:
Studies on the release of ATP from neurons began with the earliest investigations of quantal neurotransmitter release in the 1950s, but in contrast to ATP release from other cells, studies of ATP release from neurons have been narrowly constrained to one mechanism, vesicular release. This is a consequence of the prominence of synaptic transmission in neuronal communication, but nonvesicular mechanisms for ATP release from neurons are likely to have a broader range of functions than synaptic release. Investigations of activity-dependent communication between axons and myelinating glia have stimulated a search for mechanisms that could release ATP from axons and other nonsynaptic regions in response to action potential firing. This has identified volume-activated anion channels as an important mechanism in activity-dependent ATP release from axons, and renewed interest in micromechanical changes in axons that accompany action potential firing.
More Related Videos
11:20Imaging of Intracellular ATP in Organotypic Tissue Slices of the Mouse Brain using the FRET-based Sensor ATeam1.03YEMK
Published on: December 19, 2019
08:38Vibrodissociation of Neurons from Rodent Brain Slices to Study Synaptic Transmission and Image Presynaptic Terminals
Published on: May 25, 2011
Related Concept Videos
Synaptic Signaling
Most synapses are chemical, meaning an electrical impulse or action potential spurs the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. The neuron sending the signal is called the presynaptic neuron, and the neuron receiving the signal is the postsynaptic neuron.
The presynaptic neuron fires an action potential that...
Synaptic Signaling
Excitatory and Inhibitory Effects of Neurotransmitters
The Synapse
Neuronal Communication
Chemical Synapses
Because chemical synapses depend on the release of neurotransmitter molecules from synaptic vesicles to pass on their signal, there is an approximately one millisecond delay between when the axon potential reaches the presynaptic terminal and when the neurotransmitter leads to opening of postsynaptic ion channels. Additionally, this signaling is...