TABARES DOMÍNGUEZ , Lucía

El presente trabajo se centra en el estudio de las características electrofisiológicas de células adrenocorticales en cultivo como fase previa al análisis de la posible participación de los fenómenos eléctricos de la membrana en el proceso de acoplamiento estímulo-secreción. Como se ha expuesto en el apartado anterior ("Introducción"), el...

The synapse has been designed and refined during animal evolution for two main processes: (1) to translate and transmit information with exquisite spatio-temporal precision, and (2) to prevent the spread of unspecific signals. This resulted in a highly specialized arrangement of molecules, especially on the presynaptic side, to enable the...

The arrival of an action potential (AP) at a synaptic terminal elicits highly synchronized quanta release. Repetitive APs produce successive synaptic vesicle (SV) fusions that require management of spent SV components in the presynaptic membrane with minimum disturbance of the secretory apparatus. To this end, the synaptic machinery is...

The ionic currents of clonal Y-1 adrenocortical cells were studied using the whole-cell variant of the patch-clamp technique. These cells had two major current components: a large outward current carried by K ions, and a small inward Ca current. The Ca current depended on the activity of two populations of Ca channels, slow (SD) and fast (FD)...

Presynaptic Ca2+ regulation is critical for accurate neurotransmitter release, vesicle reloading of release sites, and plastic changes in response to electrical activity. One of the main players in the regulation of cytosolic Ca2+ in nerve terminals is mitochondria, which control the size and spread of the Ca2+ wave during sustained electrical...

During development, motoneurons experience significant changes in their size and in the number and strength of connections that they receive, which requires adaptive changes in their passive and active electrical properties. Even after reaching maturity, motoneurons continue to adjust their intrinsic excitability and synaptic activity for...

Cysteine string protein a (CSPα) is a vesicle protein located in the presynaptic terminal of most synapses. CSPα is an essential molecular co-chaperone that facilitates the correct folding of proteins and the assembly of the exocytic machinery. The absence of this protein leads to altered neurotransmitter release and neurodegeneration in...

Low levels of the Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) protein produce Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a severe monogenetic disease in infants characterized by muscle weakness and impaired synaptic transmission. We report here severe structural and functional alterations in the organization of the organelles and the cytoskeleton of motor nerve terminals...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive degenerative motor neuron disease characterized by symmetrical muscle weakness and atrophy of limb and trunk muscles being the most severe genetic disease in children. In SMA mouse models, motor nerve terminals display neurotransmitter release reduction, endocytosis decrease and...

muscular atrophy (SMA). SMN forms the core of a protein complex localized at the cytoplasm and nuclear gems and that catalyzes spliceosomal snRNP particle synthesis. In cultured motor neurons, SMN is also present in dendrites and axons, and forms part of the ribonucleoprotein transport granules implicated in mRNA trafficking and local...

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Cysteine string protein (CSP) α is an abundant synaptic vesicle protein that contains a DNA-J domain characteristic of Hsp40-type cochaperones. Previous studies showed that deletion of CSPα in mice leads to massive lethal neurodegeneration but did not clarify how the neurodegeneration affects specific subpopulations of neurons. Here, we...

We monitored presynaptic exocytosis and vesicle recycling at neuromuscular junctions of transgenic mice expressing synaptopHluorin (spH), using simultaneous optical and electrophysiological recordings. Synaptic transmission was indistinguishable from that in wildtype controls. Fluorescence rose during and decayed monotonically after stimulus...

Cysteine string protein (CSP) _ is an abundant synaptic vesicle protein that contains a DNA-J domain characteristic of Hsp40-type cochaperones. Previous studies showed that deletion of CSP_ in mice leads to massive lethal neurodegeneration but did not clarify how the neurodegeneration affects specific subpopulations of neurons. Here, we...