| First Author | Persico AM | Year | 2001 |
| Journal | J Neurosci | Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 17 | Pages | 6862-73 |
| PubMed ID | 11517274 | Mgi Jnum | J:71182 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:2149272 | Doi | 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.21-17-06862.2001 |
| Citation | Persico AM, et al. (2001) Barrel pattern formation requires serotonin uptake by thalamocortical afferents, and not vesicular monoamine release. J Neurosci 21(17):6862-73 |
| abstractText | Thalamocortical neurons innervating the barrel cortex in neonatal rodents transiently store serotonin (5-HT) in synaptic vesicles by expressing the plasma membrane serotonin transporter (5-HTT) and the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2). 5-HTT knock-out (ko) mice reveal a nearly complete absence of 5-HT in the cerebral cortex by immunohistochemistry, and of barrels, both at P7 and adulthood. Quantitative electron microscopy reveals that 5-HTT ko affects neither the density of synapses nor the length of synaptic contacts in layer IV. VMAT2 ko mice, completely lacking activity-dependent vesicular release of monoamines including 5-HT, also show a complete lack of 5-HT in the cortex but display largely normal barrel fields, despite sometimes markedly reduced postnatal growth. Transient 5-HTT expression is thus required for barrel pattern formation, whereas activity-dependent vesicular 5-HT release is not. |
