Acetylcholine receptor gene expression is induced locally at the developing neuromuscular junction. A new paper shows that this process requires cyclin-dependent kinase 5.

Many of these processes resemble the reorganization of the cellular “cytoskeleton” that takes place when acetylcholine receptors are aggregated in the neuromuscular junction.

The neuromuscular junction consists of the motor-nerve terminus, the postsynaptic muscle end plate, ... Acetylcholine then rapidly diffuses across the gap to the postsynaptic end plate, ...

Acetylcholine (Ach) is a neurotransmitter that functions in both the central and peripheral nervous systems. It is a non-monoamine subtype, meaning that it does not contain an amino group ...

In the normal development and maintenance of the neuromuscular junction (left), structural organization is maintained thanks to signaling by proteins such as muscle-specific kinase (MuSK), Vangl2, and ...

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease in which antibodies bind to acetylcholine receptors or to functionally related molecules in the postsynaptic membrane at the neuromuscular junction.

Led by first author Xufeng Liao and senior author Shunqi Wang, the article provides a comprehensive overview of the critical role of Rapsyn in neuromuscular junction (NMJ) and congenital myasthenic ...

Myasthenia gravis is a disorder in which normal communication between the nerve and muscle is interrupted at the neuromuscular junction. Normally when impulses travel down the nerve, the nerve endings ...

The neuromuscular junction contains three types of nicotinic receptors. ... This upregulation of acetylcholine receptors permits a massive, potentially pathophysiologic, ...

James F. Howard Jr, MD, professor of neurology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explains how nerve and muscle signaling in the neuromuscular junction go awry in myasthenia gravis.