Corbett Walsh with Prof. George Dubyak (SOM, Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics)

Regulation of ATP release in Astrocytes

Cell volume regulation is of particular physiologic importance in neural tissues due to the adverse effects of even small changes in brain volume. In the brain, extracellular ATP acts as an autocrine / paracrine signaling molecule and participates in volume regulation by activating a family of P2 receptors. While significant advances have been made regarding the signaling controlling ATP release, the actual conduits for the export of ATP have not been clearly defined. Investigations of ATP release from astrocytes have identified several ubiquitously expressed large channels as candidate conduits for ATP release; non-junctional “gap-junction hemichannels” comprised of connexin or pannexin subunits, volume sensitive organic anion channels, and Maxi-anion channels.  I plan to investigate what channel or channels are responsible for ATP release using the C6 rat line.