title: Enhanced long-term potentiation in vivo in dentate gyrus of NELL2-deficient mice.
abstract: NELL2 is a neuron-specific thrombospondin-1-like extracellular protein containing six epidermal growth factor-like domains and is highly expressed in the hippocampus. We have previously shown that NELL2 promotes survival of neurons through mitogen-activated protein kinases. To clarify the function of NELL2 in vivo, we have generated a novel strain of mice with a targeted mutation in the NELL2 gene and assessed long-term potentiation (LTP) in vivo in the dentate gyrus of NELL2-deficient mice using extracellular recording techniques. Production of LTP at perforant path-granule cell synapses was significantly larger in NELL2-deficient mice than in wild-type controls. Thus, we propose that NELL2 plays an important role as a novel suppressor in LTP in vivo in the mouse dentate gyrus.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics, Department of Genome Sciences, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Hyogo 650-0017, Japan.
authors.forename: Shogo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsuyama
authors.forename: Koutoku
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aihara
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nishino
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Katsuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanizawa
authors.forename: Shun'ichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000502:physiology*; D005110:Extracellular Space / Q000502:physiology; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: C491253:Nell2 protein, mouse; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins