生物谷：三磷酸腺苷（ATP）不僅是細胞內最重要的能量分子，也是細胞間信息傳遞的重要信號分子。近年來人們發現腦內膠質細胞具有分泌各種信號分子的功能，但其分泌機理不清楚。中科院上海生命科學研究院神經科學研究所段樹民及其學生張志君、陳罡、周偉等在他們原來工作的基礎上，進一步研究發現星形膠質細胞的溶酶體含有豐富的ATP, 並可在一定的生理和病理刺激下呈現不同程度的分泌，這種不同模式的分泌可能在介導膠質細胞的各種神經生理和病理作用方面具有重要意義。該工作於7月8日在線發表在國際著名雜誌《自然-細胞生物學》（Nature Cell Biology）上。
溶酶體被認為是細胞的「消化器官」，對吞噬到細胞內的『營養物質」和細胞「廢棄物質」 的降解起關鍵作用。膠質細胞溶酶體具有釋放ATP功能的發現，對理解和更深入研究膠質細胞在腦內的功能具有重要意義。由於ATP也是很多組織細胞普遍應用的信號分子，該研究工作對進一步研究其它細胞的溶酶體是否也具有釋放ATP及其功能具有重要意義。（神經科學研究所）
原始出處:
Published online: 8 July 2007; | doi:10.1038/ncb1620
Zhijun Zhang1, 6, Gang Chen1, 2, 6, Wei Zhou1, 3, 6, Aihong Song1, Tao Xu4, Qingming Luo3, Wei Wang5, Xiao-song Gu2 & Shumin Duan1 1 Institute of Neuroscience and Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China. 2 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, 226001, China. 3 Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China. 4 National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China. 5 Department of Neurology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical Scool, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. 6 These authors contributed equally to this work. Correspondence should be addressed to Shumin Duan shumin@ion.ac.cn Release of ATP from astrocytes is required for Ca2+ wave propagation among astrocytes1, 2, 3 and for feedback modulation of synaptic functions2, 4, 5. However, the mechanism of ATP release and the source of ATP in astrocytes are still not known. Here we show that incubation of astrocytes with FM dyes leads to selective labelling of lysosomes. Time-lapse confocal imaging of FM dye-labelled fluorescent puncta, together with extracellular quenching and total-internal-reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM), demonstrated directly that extracellular ATP or glutamate induced partial exocytosis of lysosomes, whereas an ischaemic insult with potassium cyanide induced both partial and full exocytosis of these organelles. We found that lysosomes contain abundant ATP, which could be released in a stimulus-dependent manner. Selective lysis of lysosomes abolished both ATP release and Ca2+ wave propagation among astrocytes, implicating physiological and pathological functions of regulated lysosome exocytosis in these cells. 相關報導: 新生大鼠雌激素注射後睪丸肥大細胞的變化 JCI:腫瘤細胞通過自噬作用逃避死亡 神經元與膠質細胞對損傷的基本反應 骨髓基質細胞體外誘導分化成神經元和膠質細胞 「小膠質細胞」傳遞疼痛信號的機制 神經膠質細胞與神經細胞的退化