Mammalian motor neurons corelease glutamate and acetylcholine at central synapses

Hiroshi Nishimaru; Carlos Ernesto Restrepo; Jesper Ryge; Yuchio Yanagawa; Ole Kiehn

doi:10.1073/pnas.0501331102

Mammalian motor neurons corelease glutamate and acetylcholine at central synapses

Hiroshi Nishimaru, Carlos Ernesto Restrepo, Jesper Ryge, Yuchio Yanagawa, Ole Kiehn^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Neuroscience

181 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Motor neurons (MNs) are the principal neurons in the mammalian spinal cord whose activities cause muscles to contract. In addition to their peripheral axons, MNs have central collaterals that contact inhibitory Renshaw cells and other MNs. Since its original discovery > 60 years ago, it has been a general notion that acetylcholine is the only transmitter released from MN synapses both peripherally and centrally. Here, we show, using a multidisciplinary approach, that mammalian spinal MNs, in addition to acetylcholine, corelease glutamate to excite Renshaw cells and other MNs but not to excite muscles. Our study demonstrates that glutamate can be released as a functional neurotransmitter from mammalian MNs.

Original language	English
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	102
Issue number	14
Pages (from-to)	5245-5249
Number of pages	5
ISSN	0027-8424
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0501331102
Publication status	Published - 5 Apr 2005

Keywords

Spinal cord
Synaptic transmission

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AU - Restrepo, Carlos Ernesto

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AU - Yanagawa, Yuchio

AU - Kiehn, Ole

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N2 - Motor neurons (MNs) are the principal neurons in the mammalian spinal cord whose activities cause muscles to contract. In addition to their peripheral axons, MNs have central collaterals that contact inhibitory Renshaw cells and other MNs. Since its original discovery > 60 years ago, it has been a general notion that acetylcholine is the only transmitter released from MN synapses both peripherally and centrally. Here, we show, using a multidisciplinary approach, that mammalian spinal MNs, in addition to acetylcholine, corelease glutamate to excite Renshaw cells and other MNs but not to excite muscles. Our study demonstrates that glutamate can be released as a functional neurotransmitter from mammalian MNs.

AB - Motor neurons (MNs) are the principal neurons in the mammalian spinal cord whose activities cause muscles to contract. In addition to their peripheral axons, MNs have central collaterals that contact inhibitory Renshaw cells and other MNs. Since its original discovery > 60 years ago, it has been a general notion that acetylcholine is the only transmitter released from MN synapses both peripherally and centrally. Here, we show, using a multidisciplinary approach, that mammalian spinal MNs, in addition to acetylcholine, corelease glutamate to excite Renshaw cells and other MNs but not to excite muscles. Our study demonstrates that glutamate can be released as a functional neurotransmitter from mammalian MNs.

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Mammalian motor neurons corelease glutamate and acetylcholine at central synapses

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