Abstract
Our laboratory identified calcium-dependent activator protein for secretion 2 (CAPS2) as a gene differentially expressed in developing mouse cerebellum and recently showed that CAPS2 is highly related to autism, the most common neurodevelopmental disorder. CAPS2 is widely expressed in the mouse brain including cerebellum and hippocampus, and is involved in the secretion of brain derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF). BDNF secretion and the activation of its receptor TrkB are required for many of the cellular aspects during synaptic plasticity, including gene expression, protein synthesis, spine morphology and long-term preservation of synaptic transmission. Therefore, the function of CAPS2 is thought to be related to synaptic plasticity. To address this hypothesis, we examined the effect of CAPS2 deficiency on synaptic plasticity such as long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) in hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapse by comparing wild type and CAPS2 KO mice. [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S129]
