{"doi":"10.17615/ws8m-qf90","title":"Presynaptic differentiation induced in cultured neurons by local application of basic fibroblast growth factor","abstract":"Recent studies have suggested a role for molecules residing at the muscle surface in signaling presynaptic development at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Since heparan sulfate-proteoglycan is a major component of the extracellular matrix of skeletal muscle, factors that are bound to this proteoglycan, such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), are in a strategic position for neuronal signaling. To test this idea, we applied bFGF to cultured Xenopus spinal cord neurons and monitored the change in intracellular Ca2+ level with fura-2 ratio imaging. In one-third of the neurons, local application of bFGF elicited a 30-140% increase in intracellular Ca2+ level. Ca(2+)-free medium or suramin abolished this change. Latex beads coated with bFGF induced clustering of synaptic vesicles at the bead-neurite contacts as evidenced by anti-synaptotagmin antibody labeling and electron microscopy. This response was also blocked by Ca(2+)-free medium and by suramin. Uncoated beads or beads coated with PDGF were ineffective. This induction was also inhibited by a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, tyrphostin RG-50864, suggesting the role of receptor tyrosine kinase activation in this process. In addition, bFGF-coated beads also induced the localization of depolarization-dependent Ca2+ influx to the bead-neurite contacts. In contrast, depolarization caused a distributed Ca2+ elevation in untreated neurites. These results suggest that local presentation of bFGF can mimic the muscle target in signaling the development of both a cytoplasmic and a membranous specialization for excitation-secretion coupling observed at the NMJ.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2021,"id":210822,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9511,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":536752,"name":"H. Benjamin Peng","orcid":"0009-0003-5133-7543","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":538762,"name":"Zhengshan Dai","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:52:16.049481Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}