病理学课件-细胞信号转导与疾病.pptVIP

Dopamine nerve pathways in the brain. Arvid Carlsson showed that there were particularly high levels of the chemical transmitter dopamine in the so called basal ganglia of the brain, which are of major importance for instance for the control of our muscle movements. In Parkinsons disease those dopamine producing nerve cells whose nerve fibers project to the basal ganglia die. This causes symptoms such as tremor, muscle rigidity and a decreased ability to move about. * Paul Greengard has shown how dopamine and several other chemical transmitters exert their effects in the nerve cell. When receptors in the cell membrane are influenced by a chemical transmitter, the levels of for example the messenger molecule cAMP are elevated. This activates so called protein kinases, which cause certain key proteins to become phosphorylated, that is phosphate molecules are added. These protein phosphorylations lead to changes of a number of proteins with different functions in the cell. When for instance proteins in ion channels in the cell membrane are influenced, the excitability of a nerve cell and its ability to send impulses along its branches changes * In the human brain there are more than hundred billion nerve cells. They are connected to each other through an infinitely complex network of nerve processes. The message from one nerve cell to another is transmitted through different chemical transmitters. The signal transduction takes place in special points of contact, called synapses. A nerve cell can have thousands of such contacts with other nerve cells. The three Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine have made pioneering discoveries concerning one type of signal transduction between nerve cells, referred to as slow synaptic transmission. These discoveries have been crucial for an understanding of the normal function of the brain and how disturbances in this signal transduction can give rise to neurological and psychiatric diseases. These findings have resulted in t