Cortical organization

Choi CM, Lapham LW, Amin-Zaki L, et al. 1978. Abnormal neuronal migration, deranged cerebral cortical organization and diffuse white matter astrocytosis of human fetal brain A major effect of methylmercury poisoning in utero. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 37 719-732. 

CORTICAL ORGANIZATION RELATED TO STRIATAL PATCH-MATRIX COMPARTMENTS... 

It was known as early as 1927 that the adrenal glands of mammalian species secrete a series of substances essential to the survival of the individual. The hormonal nature of these secretions was suggested by the observation that extracts of the adrenal gland and more specifically of the outer portion of that organ (cortex) would ensure survival of animals whose adrenals had been excised. By 1943 no fewer than 28 steroids had been isolated from adrenal cortical extracts. These compounds were found to be involved in the regulation of such diverse and basic processes as electrolyte balance, carbohydrate metabolism, and resistance to trauma, to name only a few. 

ATP certainly fulfils the criteria for a NT. It is mostly synthesised by mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation using glucose taken up by the nerve terminal. Much of that ATP is, of course, required to help maintain Na+/K+ ATPase activity and the resting membrane potential as well as a Ca +ATPase, protein kinases and the vesicular binding and release of various NTs. But that leaves some for release as a NT. This has been shown in many peripheral tissues and organs with sympathetic and parasympathetic innervation as well as in brain slices, synaptosomes and from in vivo studies with microdialysis and the cortical cup. There is also evidence that in sympathetically innervated tissue some extracellular ATP originates from the activated postsynaptic cell. While most of the released ATP comes from vesicles containing other NTs, some... 

O Heam, E., and Molliver, ME. Organization of raphe-cortical projections in rat A quantitative retrograde study. Brain Res Bull 13 709-726, 1984. 

Ciemerych MA, Tarkowski AK, Kubiak JZ 1998 Autonomous activation of histone HI kinase, cortical activity and microtubule organization in one- and two-cell mouse embryos. Biol Cell 90 557-564... 

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