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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by Janelle on April 3, 2002, at 14:27:19
Awhile back, someone on here, in response to one of my questions, made reference to "serotonin neuron" and this leads me to ask does each neuron ONLY handle one kind of neurotransmitter (eg. a serotonin neuron only handles serotonin, a dopamine neuron only handles dopamine) OR does each neuron handle multiple neurotransmitters?
Thanks.
Posted by Dr. Kramer on April 4, 2002, at 13:39:29
In reply to Kramer: question about neurons and transmitters, posted by Janelle on April 3, 2002, at 14:27:19
All neurons handle multiple neurotransmitters. For example, as far as we know, the monoamine ones we talk about all the time (dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine) are all excitatory (ie, they make the cell more likely to fire)and GABA is an inhibitory one. The isue is which neurons are wired to which others, and how firing is influnced.
Be well.
Posted by Jonathan on April 4, 2002, at 19:47:40
In reply to Kramer: question about neurons and transmitters, posted by Janelle on April 3, 2002, at 14:27:19
Hi Janelle -
"... does each neuron ONLY handle one kind of neurotransmitter (eg. a serotonin neuron only handles serotonin, a dopamine neuron only handles dopamine) OR does each neuron handle multiple neurotransmitters?"
Until recently, the answer to your question would have been "It depends what you mean by HANDLE":
• "handle" = "respond to", as a post-synaptic neuron receiving messages from other neurons - I think this is what Dr Kramer assumed you meant -
• or "handle" = "release", as a presynaptic neuron passing on its message to other neurons.
The latter, which we might call "Janelle's Hypothesis" if Sir Henry Dale hadn't thought of it first (in 1935), was believed for a long time to be correct and is the tacit assumption behind terms like "serotonergic neuron" (a neuron which is assumed to release ONLY serotonin from all of its presynaptic terminals). There's a superb review article about exceptions to Dale's Hypothesis available online - http://www.columbia.edu/~ds43/Sulzer_AminoAcidsrev.pdf - and a more advanced research paper by the same author, David Sulzer at Columbia University, New York, which includes some great pictures of real neurons - http://www.columbia.edu/~ds43/Sulzer_glutamateDA.pdf .
Please keep those questions coming :)
Jonathan.
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