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Presynaptic depolarization facilitates neurotrophin-induced synaptic potentiation

Nature Neuroscience volume 2, pages 346–351 (1999)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 February 2008

Abstract

Neurotrophins have been proposed to participate in activity-dependent modifications of neuronal connectivity and synaptic efficacy. Preferential strengthening of active inputs requires restriction of putative neurotrophin-mediated synaptic potentiation to active synapses. Here we report that potentiation of synaptic efficacy by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is greatly facilitated by presynaptic depolarization at developing neuromuscular synapses. Brief depolarization in the presence of low-level BDNF results in a marked potentiation of both evoked and spontaneous synaptic transmission, whereas exposure to either BDNF or depolarization alone is without effect. This potentiation depends on the relative timing of depolarization and reflects an enhancement of transmitter secretion from the presynaptic neuron. Thus synapses made by active inputs may be selectively strengthened by secreted neurotrophins as part of activity-dependent refinement of developing connections or of mature synapses.

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Figure 1: Effect of depolarization on BDNF-induced changes in evoked postsynaptic currents (EPCs).
Figure 2: Effect of depolarization on BDNF-induced changes in the frequency of miniature postsynaptic currents (MEPCs).
Figure 3: Analyses of MEPCs and EPCs.
Figure 4: The importance of timing of depolarization and the role of Ca2+ influx.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Genentech Inc. for providing Trk-IgG fusion protein and Benedikt Berninger and Alejandro Schinder for discussion of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from NIH.

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  1. Department of Biology-0357, 9500 Gilman Drive, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0357, California, USA

    Lisa Boulanger & Mu-ming Poo

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Correspondence to Mu-ming Poo.

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Boulanger, L., Poo, Mm. Presynaptic depolarization facilitates neurotrophin-induced synaptic potentiation. Nat Neurosci 2, 346–351 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/7258

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