发育新皮质中神经元电活动与细胞凋亡之间的内稳态相互作用

Homeostatic interplay between electrical activity and neuronal apoptosis in the developing neocortex

在大多数动物物种中,神经系统发育的一个有趣的特征是最初产生的神经元数量比从属于成熟环路的神经元数目多。在啮齿动物出生后的前两周中,有相当一部分的神经元在短时间内通过细胞凋亡被消除。虽然我们已经十分清楚神经营养因子及细胞凋亡在外周神经系统(PNS)中调控着神经元的生存,但它在中枢神经系统(CNS)中的情况却不明了。在啮齿动物大脑皮质中,细胞凋亡发生的高峰与自发的、同步的神经活动模式的发生相吻合。在本文中,我们回顾最近的研究结果,这些研究证明电活动对大脑皮质神经元生存的重要性,描述了Ca2+和神经营养因子将电活动翻译成促生存信号的作用,最后简要讨论电活动和神经元生存与细胞凋亡之间的紧密关系对于临床的意义。

An interesting feature of neural development in most animal species is that the number of neurons initially produced is greater than the number of neurons belonging to the mature circuits. In the first two weeks of life,a significant number of neurons are eliminated in a short period through apoptosis. Although we have been very clear that in the peripheral nervous system（ PNS）,neurotrophic factors and apoptosis play an important role in controlling the neurons survival,but the situation in central nervous system（ CNS） remains unknown. In the rodent cortex,the peak of apoptosis coincides with spontaneous,synchronous neural activity pattern. In this article,we review the recent research results which proved the important role of electrical activity in the brain cortex neuron survival,described the function of Ca^2＋and neurotrophic factors in translating electrical activity into prosurvival signals,and finally discuss the clinical impact of the tight relation between electrical activity and apoptosis of neurons.