title: The acetylcholine receptor gamma-to-epsilon switch occurs in individual endplates.
abstract: Maturation of the neuromuscular junction is accompanied by molecular switching of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) channels from embryonic types with gamma-subunits to adult ones with epsilon-subunits after birth. As a step toward understanding the molecular mechanisms of the gamma-to-epsilon switch, we addressed the question of whether embryonic- and adult-type AChRs constitute different endplates during the transitional period. From analyses with double- or triple-staining with anti-gamma- and/or anti-epsilon-antibodies together with alpha-bungarotoxin, which binds to alpha-subunits, we demonstrated that during neonatal stages in mice, adult-type AChRs are incorporated into individual endplates expressing embryonic-AChRs and replace these embryonic-AChRs gradually. The main period of AChR transition in the mouse diaphragm was between postnatal days 5 (P5) and P7, similar to the period described previously in which endplates shift from multi-axon to single-axon innervation. This finding will help our understanding of the mechanisms of the gamma-to-epsilon switch during establishment of the neuromuscular junction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Growth Regulation, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606 8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yumoto
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wakatsuki
authors.forename: Atsuko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sehara-Fujisawa
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D047108:Embryonic Development; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000502:physiology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic