Journal of Biological Chemistry
Volume 277, Issue 32, 9 August 2002, Pages 28861-28869
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MOLECULAR BASIS OF CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor Evokes a Rapid Glutamate Release through Activation of the MAPK Pathway in Cultured Cortical Neurons*

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We examined the possibility that basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is involved in synaptic transmissions. We found that bFGF rapidly induced the release of glutamate and an increase in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration through voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels in cultured cerebral cortical neurons. bFGF also evoked a significant influx of Na+. Tetanustoxin inhibited the bFGF-induced glutamate release, revealing that bFGF triggered exocytosis. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway was required for these acute effects of bFGF. We also found that pretreatment with bFGF significantly enhanced high K+-elicited glutamate release also in a MAPK activation-dependent manner. Therefore, we propose that bFGF exerts promoting effects on excitatory neuronal transmission via activation of the MAPK pathway.

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Published, JBC Papers in Press, May 28, 2002, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M202927200

This work was supported in part by grants-in-aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Culture and Technology of Japan and from CREST of the Japan Science and Technology Cooperation.The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.