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Interactions between neurons and glial cells in the brain mayserve important functions in the development, maintenance, andplasticity of neural circuits. Fast neuron-glia synaptic transmissionhas been found between hippocampal neurons and NG2 cells, adistinct population of macroglia-like cells widely distributedin the brain. We report that these neuron-glia synapses undergoactivity-dependent modifications analogous to long-term potentiation(LTP) at excitatory synapses, a hallmark of neuronal plasticity.However, unlike the induction of LTP at many neuron-neuron synapses,both induction and expression of LTP at neuron-NG2 synapsesinvolve Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors on NG2 cells.
1 Institute of Neuroscience and Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China. 2 Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: shumin{at}ion.ac.cn
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