Rapid conversion of drebrin isoforms during synapse formation in primary culture of cortical neurons

Easier methods to evaluate synapse formation in cultured neurons are desirable to investigate the regulatory mechanisms of synaptic development. We focused on drebrin, which changes from embryonic-type to adult-type isoform during postnatal development. The adult-type isoform of drebrin was detected by Western blotting after seventh day in primary cultured cortical neurons and the expression was coincidental with that of synaptophysin. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction could demonstrate reversal of the predominant drebrin mRNA isoform from embryonic type to adult type between 8 and 13 days of culture. This is an easy and quick method to evaluate synapse formation in vitro.