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Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Monitoring the Effect of Osmotic Stress on Secretory Vesicles and Exocytosis
Published on: February 19, 2018
Single-Vesicle Electrochemistry Reveals Sex Difference in Vesicular Storage and Release of Catecholamine
Qingwei Yue1,2, Kai Wang1, Ming Guan1
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100190, China.
Abstract:
Quantitative measurements of sex difference in vesicle chemistry (i.e., chemical storage and release) at the single-vesicle level are essential to understand sex differences in cognitive behaviors; however, such measurements are very challenging to conventional analytical methods. By using single-vesicle electrochemistry, we find the duration of single exocytotic events of chromaffin cells prepared from male rats is statistically longer than that from female rats, leading to more neurotransmitter released in the male group. Further analysis reveals that a higher percentage of vesicles in the female group release part of the neurotransmitter, i.e., partial release, during exocytosis than that in male group. This sex dimorphism in neurotransmitter release in exocytosis might relate to the sex difference in the expression of voltage-dependent calcium channels and membrane lipid composition. Our finding offers the first experimental evidence that sex dimorphism even exists in vesicle chemistry, providing a brand new viewpoint for understanding the sex dimorphism in exocytosis.
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