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The distinct role of NR2B subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood

BACKGROUND: Experience-dependent plasticity is confined to the critical period of early postnatal life, and declines dramatically thereafter. This attenuation promotes the stabilization of cortical circuits, but also limits functional recovery of several brain diseases. The cognitive functions and s...

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Autores principales: Liu, Hanxiao, Li, Yue, Wang, Yan, Wang, Xinxing, An, Xu, Wang, Siying, Chen, Lin, Liu, Guosong, Yang, Yupeng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4539718/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26282667
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13041-015-0141-y
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author Liu, Hanxiao
Li, Yue
Wang, Yan
Wang, Xinxing
An, Xu
Wang, Siying
Chen, Lin
Liu, Guosong
Yang, Yupeng
author_facet Liu, Hanxiao
Li, Yue
Wang, Yan
Wang, Xinxing
An, Xu
Wang, Siying
Chen, Lin
Liu, Guosong
Yang, Yupeng
author_sort Liu, Hanxiao
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Experience-dependent plasticity is confined to the critical period of early postnatal life, and declines dramatically thereafter. This attenuation promotes the stabilization of cortical circuits, but also limits functional recovery of several brain diseases. The cognitive functions and synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are elevated following chronic magnesium treatment. Here, we explored the effect of magnesium treatment on visual plasticity and the potential clinical significance. RESULTS: Visual plasticity in adult mice was dramatically enhanced following magnesium treatment, which was concurrent with an increase in the expression of NR2 subunits of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors. Blockade of NR2B activity in both the induction and expression periods of plasticity prevented this reinstatement. However, the plasticity restored via a decrease in cortical inhibition was independent on the activation of NR2B, indicating a different underlying mechanism. The functional excitatory synapses on layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons were increased following magnesium supplementation. Moreover, the synaptic and neuronal responses were reminiscent of that within the critical period, and this rejuvenation of adult visual cortex facilitated the recovery of visual functions in amblyopia. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our data reveal two distinct mechanisms underlying the restoration of visual plasticity in adulthood, and the rejuvenation of adult visual cortex following magnesium treatment provides a new avenue to develop clinical therapies for adult amblyopia, as well as to explore plasticity-based treatment of other brain diseases, such as stroke and aphasia. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13041-015-0141-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-45397182015-08-19 The distinct role of NR2B subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood Liu, Hanxiao Li, Yue Wang, Yan Wang, Xinxing An, Xu Wang, Siying Chen, Lin Liu, Guosong Yang, Yupeng Mol Brain Research BACKGROUND: Experience-dependent plasticity is confined to the critical period of early postnatal life, and declines dramatically thereafter. This attenuation promotes the stabilization of cortical circuits, but also limits functional recovery of several brain diseases. The cognitive functions and synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are elevated following chronic magnesium treatment. Here, we explored the effect of magnesium treatment on visual plasticity and the potential clinical significance. RESULTS: Visual plasticity in adult mice was dramatically enhanced following magnesium treatment, which was concurrent with an increase in the expression of NR2 subunits of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors. Blockade of NR2B activity in both the induction and expression periods of plasticity prevented this reinstatement. However, the plasticity restored via a decrease in cortical inhibition was independent on the activation of NR2B, indicating a different underlying mechanism. The functional excitatory synapses on layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons were increased following magnesium supplementation. Moreover, the synaptic and neuronal responses were reminiscent of that within the critical period, and this rejuvenation of adult visual cortex facilitated the recovery of visual functions in amblyopia. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our data reveal two distinct mechanisms underlying the restoration of visual plasticity in adulthood, and the rejuvenation of adult visual cortex following magnesium treatment provides a new avenue to develop clinical therapies for adult amblyopia, as well as to explore plasticity-based treatment of other brain diseases, such as stroke and aphasia. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13041-015-0141-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2015-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4539718/ /pubmed/26282667 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13041-015-0141-y Text en © Liu et al. 2015 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Liu, Hanxiao
Li, Yue
Wang, Yan
Wang, Xinxing
An, Xu
Wang, Siying
Chen, Lin
Liu, Guosong
Yang, Yupeng
The distinct role of NR2B subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood
title The distinct role of NR2B subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood
title_full The distinct role of NR2B subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood
title_fullStr The distinct role of NR2B subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood
title_full_unstemmed The distinct role of NR2B subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood
title_short The distinct role of NR2B subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood
title_sort distinct role of nr2b subunit in the enhancement of visual plasticity in adulthood
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4539718/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26282667
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13041-015-0141-y
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