The double life of neurotransmitters
Laurent Nguyen’s team has demonstrated the role of glycine in the migration of cortical interneurons. This study is a new illustration of the function of neurotransmitters during early stages of development, before the establishment of synaptic transmission and therefore the conduction of nerve impulse. This discovery demonstrates the importance of the environment on the control of the migration of these nerve cells. An investigation into the presence of glycine receptors“We focused our attention particularly on a small amino acid, called glycine”, explains Laurent Nguyen. “We knew that this neurotransmitter and its receptor were expressed in the brain during development but we did not know what their functions were”. During his thesis, Laurent Nguyen had already worked on the role of neurotransmitters during development and their extrasynaptic functions. “In particular, we showed that the stem cells of the central nervous system of rat embryos express glycine receptors. This time, in the context of Ariel Avila’s thesis, we chose to analyse the expression and function of glycine receptors in migrating interneurons”, continues Laurent Nguyen. The interneurons are inhibitor neurons and constitute one of two main classes of nerve cells found in the cortex, the other being projection neurons (Read The migration of neurons ‘under the wing’ of the Elongator). |
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