NMDA receptor mediated Ca2+ responses in neurons differentiated from p53-/- immortalized Murine neural stem cells.

NMDA receptors play important roles in brain formation by taking part in synaptogenesis and apoptosis. In the present study, the expression of NMDA receptors was analyzed in a neural stem cell line, MSP-1, which lacks p53. p53 is a transcription factor involved in excitotoxic neuronal apoptosis. It is quite likely that p53-mediated transcription control affects the expression of NMDA receptors inducing intracellular Ca2+ signaling after neuronal differentiation and is essential for neural development. By means of calcium digital imaging, NMDA receptor-mediated Ca2+ responses were detected from cultured neurons differentiated from neural stem cells which lack p53. This result implies that p53-related apoptosis is not due to NMDA receptor expression.