• Applied Microscopy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 1997

The distribution of glutamatergic synaptic structures in the dog basilar pons was investigated at the ultrastructural level using monoclonal antibodies against fixative-modified glutamate. Electron-dense reaction product was densely localized at the perinuclear region in the neurenal somata and often observed along the microtubules located within the dendritic processes. One or more unlabelled axon terminals made asymmetric synaptic contacts with glutamate-immunoreactive dendritic profiles. In audition, reaction product was observed either within axonal processes surrounded by myelin sheath or axon terminals. Immunoreactive axon terminals made asymmetric synaptic contact either with unlabelled or labelled dendritic profiles. These observations provided an anatomic evidence of how this excitatory neural element might perform its function in a multisynaptic pathway involving glutamatergic afferents to the basilar pons, glutamate-immunoreactive pontocerebellar projection neurons, and the glutamate-positive granule cells of the cerebellar cortex.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.249-255
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• 2014

Programmed cell death or apoptosis is associated with changes in $K^+$ concentration in many cell types. Recent studies have demonstrated that two-pore domain $K^+$ ($K_{2P}$) channels are involved in mouse embryonic development and apoptotic volume decrease of mammalian cells. In cerebellar granule neurons that normally undergo apoptosis during the early developmental stage, TASK-1 and TASK-3, members of $K_{2P}$ channels, were found to be critical for cell death. This study was performed to identify the role of $K^+$ channels in the $H_2O_2$-induced or cryo-induced cell death of mouse and bovine embryos. Mouse and bovine two-cell stage embryos (2-cells) exposed to $H_2O_2$ for 4 h suffered from apoptosis. The 2-cells showed positive TUNEL staining. Treatment with high concentration of KCl (25mM) inhibited $H_2O_2$-induced apoptosis of 2-cells by 19%. Cryo-induced death in bovine blastocysts showed positive TUNEL staining only in the cells near the plasma membrane. Cryoprotectant supplemented with 25 mM KCl reduced apoptosis slightly compared to cryoprotectant supplemented with 5 mM KCl. However, the combination of antioxidants (${\beta}$-mercaptoethanol) with 25 mM KCl significantly decreased the rate of $H_2O_2$-induced and cryo-induced apoptosis compared to treatments with only antioxidants or 25 mM KCl. These results show that blockage of $K^+$ channel efflux for a short-time reduces $H_2O_2$- and cryo-induced apoptosis in mouse and bovine embryos. Our findings suggest that apoptosis in mouse and bovine embryos might be controlled by modulation of $K^+$ channels which are highly expressed in a given cell type.