The axon initial segment (AIS) is critical for the initiation and propagation of action potentials. Assembly of the AIS requires interactions between scaffolding molecules and voltage-gated sodium channels, but the molecular mechanisms that stabilize the AIS are poorly understood. The neuronal isoform of Neurofascin, Nfasc186, clusters voltage-gated sodium channels at nodes of Ranvier in myelin...

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) accounts for more than 80% of the approximately 610,000 new stroke cases worldwide every year. Both ischemia and reperfusion can cause death, damage, and functional changes of affected nerve cells, and these alterations can result in high rates of disability and mortality. Therefore, therapies aimed at increasing neuroprotection and neurorepair would make significant...

The axon initial segment (AIS) is a specialized neuronal compartment involved in the maintenance of axo-dendritic polarity and in the generation of action potentials. It is also a site of significant structural plasticity-manipulations of neuronal activity in vitro and in vivo can produce changes in AIS position and/or size that are associated with alterations in intrinsic excitability. However...

in this research we study the influencing factors that have direct effect on successful ais implementing. according to other researches, we specified some factors that are most efficacious ones, and categorized them through three main hypotheses of human recourses, technical characteristics of ais and management strategies. to study various dimensions of these groups we determined some other fa...

The microdomain that orchestrates action potential initiation in neurons is the axon initial segment (AIS). It has long been considered to be a rather homogeneous domain at the very proximal axon hillock with relatively stable length, particularly in cortical pyramidal cells. However, studies in other brain regions paint a different picture. In hippocampal CA1, up to 50% of axons emerge from ba...

Neurons implement a variety of plasticity mechanisms to alter their function over timescales ranging from seconds to days. One powerful means of controlling excitability is to directly modulate the site of spike initiation, the axon initial segment (AIS). However, all plastic structural AIS changes reported thus far have been slow, involving days of neuronal activity perturbation. Here, we show...

The axon initial segment (AIS) functions as both a physiological and physical bridge between somatodendritic and axonal domains. Given its unique molecular composition, location, and physiology, the AIS is thought to maintain neuronal polarity. To identify the molecular basis of this AIS property, we used adenovirus-mediated RNA interference to silence AIS protein expression in polarized neuron...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a structural deformity of the spine affecting millions of children. As a complex disease, the genetic aetiology of AIS remains obscure. Here we report the results of a four-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) conducted in a sample of 4,317 AIS patients and 6,016 controls. Overall, we identify three new susceptibility loci at 1p36.32 near AJAP1 (rs...

BACKGROUND Despite more than a century of dedicated research, the etiology and pathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) remain unclear. By definition, 'idiopathic' implies an unknown cause. Nevertheless, many abnormalities concomitant to AIS have been described, often with the suggestion that these abnormalities are related to etio-pathogenesis. Insight in the concomitant abnormali...

To investigate the underlying mechanisms of low metabolic activity of primary chondrocytes obtained from girls with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS); AIS is a spine-deforming disease that often occurs in girls. AIS is associated with a lower bone mass than that of healthy individuals and osteopenia. Leptin was shown to play an important role in bone growth. It can also regulate the functio...