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Zinc Is Externalized Rather than Released during Synaptic Transmission
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Zinc Is Externalized Rather than Released during Synaptic Transmission

Irma Nydegger, Sean M Rumschik and Alan R Kay
ACS chemical neuroscience, Vol.1(11), pp.728-736
09/09/2010
DOI: 10.1021/cn100065s
PMCID: PMC3017368
PMID: 21221416
url
https://doi.org/10.1021/cn100065sView
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The synaptic vesicles of some glutamatergic terminals contain a high concentration of zinc that serves functions that remain obscure. In this publication, we have used the membrane permeant zinc fluophore, ZnAF-2, to determine whether zinc is released during the course of synaptic transmission. Stimulation of the slices either with high potassium or electrically, leads to an increase in fluorescence that long outlasts the stimulus and remains elevated for many minutes. We demonstrate that this response is inconsistent with the free release of zinc but is consistent with the presentation of zinc coordinated to macromolecules within the exocytosed vesicles to the extracellular space; a process we term “externalization”. Our data suggests a novel mechanism of synaptic transmission at zinc-rich glutamatergic terminals that distinguishes them from their metal free counterparts.
hippocampus fluorescence zinc glutamatergic synaptic vesicles

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