2026年 新着論文 14 病態シグナル学分野から論文が発表されました

Localization of Puncta Adherentia Junctions at GABAergic Synapses on Parvalbumin-Positive GABAergic Inhibitory Neurons in the Mouse Hippocampus

J Comp Neurol. 2026 Mar;534(3):e70152. doi: 10.1002/cne.70152.

Authors

Kimitaka Katanazaka  1   2 Hajime Shiotani  1   3 Muneaki Miyata  1   3 Takeshi Kameyama  1 Shin Kedashiro  1   3 Ryouhei Komaki  1   2 Shota Nishii  1   2 Yutaro Kashiwagi  4 Yuka Sato  4 Shigeo Okabe  4   5 Norio Chihara  2 Riki Matsumoto  2   6 Kiyohito Mizutani  1   3 Yoshimi Takai  1

Affiliations

  • 1 Division of Pathogenetic Signaling, Department of Psychiatry, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
  • 2 Division of Neurology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
  • 3 Division of Pathogenetic Signaling, Institute of Advanced Medical Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan.
  • 4 Department of Cellular Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
  • 5 RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama, Japan.
  • 6 Department of Neurology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.

Abstract

Puncta adherentia junctions (PAJs) have been observed at glutamatergic excitatory synapses on glutamatergic excitatory neurons (E→E synapses) in the mouse hippocampus and are considered to be the mechanical adhesion sites between axon terminals and dendritic shafts. However, it remains unclear whether they are present at other types of synapses, such as glutamatergic synapses on GABAergic inhibitory neurons (E→I synapses) and GABAergic synapses on excitatory neurons (I→E synapses) and inhibitory neurons (I→I synapses). We showed here that the PAJ components, such as nectin-1, nectin-3, l-afadin, N-cadherin, β-catenin, and αN-catenin, were observed at all four types of synapses in cultured mouse hippocampal neurons. In the adult mouse hippocampus, these PAJ components were observed at a subset of I→I synapses on parvalbumin-positive GABAergic inhibitory neurons, similarly to their presence at E→E synapses in the CA1 and CA3 regions. In contrast, several PAJ components, including nectin-3, l-afadin, N-cadherin, β-catenin, and αN-catenin, were observed at E→I and I→E synapses, whereas nectin-1 was absent. These results indicate that the PAJs are formed at a subset of I→I synapses in addition to E→E synapses, where all examined PAJ components are present, whereas E→I and I→E synapses exhibit only partial localization of these components, reflecting molecular diversity among different synapses in the adult mouse hippocampus.

Keywords: GABAergic synapses; N‐cadherin; afadin; catenin; glutamatergic synapses; nectin; puncta adherentia junctions (PAJs).

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