Event Abstract Back to Event Investigation of calpain activity Z. Szíber1*, D. Czégé1, B. Szőke2, A. Farkas3, G. Szabó4, K. Halasy2 and I. Világi1 1 Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Hungary 2 Szent István University, Department of Anatomy and Histology, Hungary 3 Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Enzymology, Hungary 4 Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungary Calpain is an intracellular Ca2+-dependent cysteine protease activated by an increased cytosolic Ca2+ level. The enzyme plays a versatile role in cell homeostasis by cleaving its substrates which are mostly involved in the maintenance of the cytoskeleton. Calpain can also modify the function of glutamatergic receptors and therefore plays a role in synaptic plasticity. Abnormal activity of calpain is involved in a multitude of neurodegenerative or other disorders. Our aim was to determine the time course of calpain activation in certain brain regions as well as to attempt to characterize the cell types of particularly high activation. We employed A and C domains of calpastatin to activate calpain without changing the intracellular Ca2+ level. To investigate the activation of calpain a synthetic substrate was used, highly specific to calpain. Immunocytochemical methods were used to characterize the activated cells by co‑localization. Our result suggest that certain brain regions and cell types have different calpain activity. In the somatosensory cortex the activation is more pronounced than in the hippocampus. There is also a difference in the time course of the activation, the cortex shows maximal activation after 10 minutes, whereas the hippocampus shows it at 5 minutes. Based on our results, the most active cells are neither glutamate-, nor GABA-ergic, and are also not of glial origin. Some data suggests that they may be cholinergic, which is yet to be confirmed. Keywords: Molecular and cellular neurobiology, Neuroscience Conference: 13th Conference of the Hungarian Neuroscience Society (MITT), Budapest, Hungary, 20 Jan - 22 Jan, 2011. Presentation Type: Abstract Topic: Molecular and cellular neurobiology Citation: Szíber Z, Czégé D, Szőke B, Farkas A, Szabó G, Halasy K and Világi I (2011). Investigation of calpain activity. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 13th Conference of the Hungarian Neuroscience Society (MITT). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2011.84.00046 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 03 Mar 2011; Published Online: 23 Mar 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Z. Szíber, Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Budapest, Hungary, zsoffi@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Z. Szíber D. Czégé B. Szőke A. Farkas G. Szabó K. Halasy I. Világi Google Z. Szíber D. Czégé B. Szőke A. Farkas G. Szabó K. Halasy I. Világi Google Scholar Z. Szíber D. Czégé B. Szőke A. Farkas G. Szabó K. Halasy I. Világi PubMed Z. Szíber D. Czégé B. Szőke A. Farkas G. Szabó K. Halasy I. Világi Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.