For synapses, it's depression not death

Helen S Bateup; Bernardo L Sabatini

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2010.05.013

For synapses, it's depression not death

Cell. 2010 May 28;141(5):750-2. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.05.013.

Authors

Helen S Bateup¹, Bernardo L Sabatini

Affiliation

¹ Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

PMID: 20510921
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.05.013

Abstract

Long-term depression (LTD) of synaptic strength is an activity-dependent process in neurons that may be important for learning and memory. Li et al. (2010) now reveal a new apoptosis-independent role for mitochondrial-activated caspases in LTD suggesting that neurons have co-opted the canonical cell death pathway to perform a specialized function at synapses.

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