Midterm Flashcards
(116 cards)
2 major cell types of the nervous system
Neurons and glia
- Glia are more numerous (1 trillion glia vs. 100 billion neurons)
Central Nervous System (CNS)
- Functions: Analyze and integrate information
- Has a blood-brain barrier
- Cannot regenerate (usually)
- Myelination: oligodendrocytes
- Terminology: nuclei, tracts
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
- Functions: receive sensory info, muscle movement
- No blood-brain barrier
- Regenerates
- Myelination: Schwann cells
- Terminology: ganglia, nerves
Gyrus, sulci, & fissures
- Gyrus: surface of brain
- Sulci: grooves
- Fissures: deep grooves
Gray matter
- Cortex, Nuclei or Ganglia (groups of nerve cell bodies and neuropil) generally of similar function
- Neuropil - neuronal processes, synapses and glia
White matter (& bundles vs. tracts)
- Bundles: (groups of myelinated axons [see below]) that course in the same direction
-
Tracts: also groups of axons - myelinated and un-myelinated but indicates origin, destination and therefore function
- e.g., corticospinal tract
Cerebrospinal fluid, dura matter, and arachnoid matter
- Made in the ventricles
- Circulates between all the cells and their processes and in the space between a membrane on the brain surface (pia matter) and a membrane next to the skull or spine (arachnoid matter)
- called the subarachnoid space
Blood vessels and coverings of the brain
Blood vessels:
- Arteries, capillaries, veins and venous sinuses
Coverings (meninges):
- Dura mater (tough mother)
- Arachnoid mater (spider web like)
- Pia mater (tender/affectionate)
Types of neurons
- Stellate (star-like)
- Pyramidal (conical/triangular)
- Correspond to function
- Multiple dendrites, only one axon
- Neurons named after famous guys (Purkinje, Betz, Cajal, Retzius, Mauthner)
- Purkinje cell:
- One complex dendrite that resembles a sea fan
- Many synapses
Golgi stain vs. Nissl stain
- Golgi stain: fills processes of some cells with black precipitates of heavy metals
- Nissl stain: stains all nuclei and neuronal cytoplasm blue
Synapse types
Asymmetrical = type 1
- Postsynaptic membrane is thicker than presynaptic membrane; spherical clear vesicles
- These are excitatory synapses - on
Symmetrical = type 2
- Postsynaptic membrane same as presynaptic membrane; flattened clear vesicles
- These are inhibitory synapses - off
3 types of glia
- Astrocytes: Maintains appropriate chemical environment for neuronal signaling (only in CNS)
- Oligodendrocytes: Lay down myelin around some (not all) axons (only in CNS)
- Microglial cell: Scavenger cells that remove cellular debris from sites of injury or normal cell turnover
3 principle germ bands
- Ectoderm: forms skin, neurons
-
Mesoderm: forms notocord, muscle, kidney, bone, blood
- Underlies (neuro) ectodrm, and induces the neural plate
- Endoderm: forms lining of gut, lungs, placenta in mammals
Neural crest cells, notocord, and neural floor plate
- Neural crest cells: make PNS, endocrine, pigment cells, connective tissues, and is source of ganglia
- Migrate into somites to form the PNS
- Derived from leading edge of neural folds
- Notocord: induces floor plate (helps polarize dorsal to ventral)
- Neural floor plate: rich source of neuronal porphogens & axonal cues
Apoptosis
Programmed Cell Death
Instrinsic and extrinsic factors
Features: membrane blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation
Requires ATP
Systematic and clean
- Can be beneficial
Necrosis
- Premature death of living cells
- Extrinsic factors only
Features: cell swelling, disruption of membranes, cell lysis, release of intracellular content (causing inflammation)
Detrimental
Often leads to buildup of dead tissue
Nerve growth factor (NGF)
- One example of a neurotrophin (NT)
- Supplied by target, promotes cell growth (instead of apoptosis)
- Signals through tyrosine kinase (Trk) receptors
- Viktor Hamburger, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Stanley Cohen
Bcl-2 gene
- This gene encodes an integral outer mitochondrial membrane protein that blocks the apoptotic death of some cells such as lymphocytes
- Overexpression of this causes B-Cell Leukemia
- Example of how cell death can be blocked by overexpression of a gene (as in Leukemia)
Ced-4
Pro-apoptotic protein expressed primarily during embryogenesis of C. elegans, homologous to the human Apoptosis activity factor (Apaf)
Apaf
- This scaffold protein binds to Cytochrome c and dATP to form a 7-spoke apoptosome complex
Cytochrome C
- This freely-diffusible molecule is well known for it’s role in cellular respiration but it also functions to activate a caspase cascade, which commits the cell to the death process
Caspase
- This family of proteins exists as inactive proenzymes that only become active after undergoing proteolytic processing and plays a central role in the execution-phase of cell apoptosis
Mitochondria
In response to a variety of apoptotic stimuli (i.e. DNA damage, ischemia, oxidative stress, etc.) it releases apoptogenic proteins to the cytoplasm that initiates the execution of apoptosis
TrKA
High affinity receptor for nerve growth factor (NGF)