Dendritic protein synthesis has a role in synaptic plasticity to be thought of a cellular model of learning and memory. However, up to now, there has been no any a useful method to monitor it in physiological context. In this study, biotin-2P, a puromycin derivative was examined as a labeling molecule that could measure dendritic protein synthesis in cultured hippocampal neurons. As the results, biotin-2P was permeable to neuronal membrane and did not show any potent inhibitory activity of protein synthesis. Biotin-2P-labelled proteins were juxtaposed to synaptic proteins such like synapsin I, GluR1 or PSD-95, implying that dendritic protein synthesis appears near to synaptic sites. In addition, dendritic protein synthesis induced by BDNF treatment could be effec-tively monitored through biotin-2P labeling method. Taken together, these results show the utility of biotin-2P as a reporter system for the monitoring of dendritic protein syn-thesis in cultured neurons.

Keywords: Neuron, dendritic protein synthesis, puromycin, BDNF, image analysis