TY - JOUR T1 - Backpropagating Action Potentials Trigger Dendritic Release of BDNF during Spontaneous Network Activity JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 7013 LP - 7023 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1673-08.2008 VL - 28 IS - 27 AU - Nicola Kuczewski AU - Christophe Porcher AU - Nadine Ferrand AU - Hervé Fiorentino AU - Christophe Pellegrino AU - Richard Kolarow AU - Volkmar Lessmann AU - Igor Medina AU - Jean-Luc Gaiarsa Y1 - 2008/07/02 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/28/27/7013.abstract N2 - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a major regulator of activity-dependent synapse development and plasticity. Because BDNF is a secreted protein, it has been proposed that BDNF is released from target neurons in an activity-dependent manner. However, direct evidence for postsynaptic release of BDNF triggered by ongoing network activity is still lacking. Here we transfected cultures of dissociated hippocampal neurons with green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged BDNF and combined whole-cell recording, time-lapse fluorescent imaging, and immunostaining to monitor activity-dependent dendritic release of BDNF. We found that spontaneous backpropagating action potentials, but not synaptic activity alone, led to a Ca2+-dependent dendritic release of BDNF-GFP. Moreover, we provide evidence that endogenous BDNF released from a single neuron can phosphorylate CREB (cAMP response element-binding protein) in neighboring neurons, an important step of immediate early gene activation. Therefore, together, our results support the hypothesis that BDNF might act as a target-derived messenger of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity and development. ER -