TY - JOUR AU - Stoyanova, Irina I. AU - le Feber, Joost PY - 2014 DA - 2014/04/17 TI - Ghrelin accelerates synapse formation and activity development in cultured cortical networks JO - BMC Neuroscience SP - 49 VL - 15 IS - 1 AB - While ghrelin was initially related to appetite stimulation and growth hormone secretion, it also has a neuroprotective effect in neurodegenerative diseases and regulates cognitive function. The cellular basis of those processes is related to synaptic efficacy and plasticity. Previous studies have shown that ghrelin not only stimulates synapse formation in cultured cortical neurons and hippocampal slices, but also alters some of the electrophysiological properties of neurons in the hypothalamus, amygdala and other subcortical areas. However, direct evidence for ghrelin’s ability to modulate the activity in cortical neurons is not available yet. In this study, we investigated the effect of acylated ghrelin on the development of the activity level and activity patterns in cortical neurons, in relation to its effect on synaptogenesis. Additionally, we quantitatively evaluated the expression of the receptor for acylated ghrelin – growth hormone secretagogue receptor-1a (GHSR-1a) during development. SN - 1471-2202 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-15-49 DO - 10.1186/1471-2202-15-49 ID - Stoyanova2014 ER -