Brain-derived neurotrophic factor but not vesicular zinc promotes TrkB activation within mossy fibers of mouse hippocampus in vivo.

The neurotrophin receptor, TrkB receptor tyrosine kinase, is critical to central nervous system (CNS) function in health and disease. Elucidating the ligands mediating TrkB activation in vivo will provide insights into its diverse roles in the CNS. The canonical ligand for TrkB is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). A diversity of stimuli also can activate TrkB in the absence of BDNF, a mechanism termed transactivation. Zinc, a divalent cation packaged in synaptic vesicles along with glutamate in axons of mammalian cortical neurons, can transactivate TrkB in neurons and heterologous cells in vitro. Yet the contributions of BDNF and zinc to TrkB activation in vivo are unknown. To address these questions, we conducted immunohistochemical (IHC) studies of the hippocampal mossy fiber axons and boutons using an antibody selective for pY816 of TrkB, a surrogate measure of TrkB activation. We found that conditional deletion of BDNF resulted in a reduction of pY816 in axons and synaptic boutons of hippocampal mossy fibers, thereby implicating BDNF in activation of TrkB in vivo. Unexpectedly, pY816 immunoreactivity was increased in axons but not synaptic boutons of mossy fibers in ZnT3 knockout mice that lack vesicular zinc. Marked increases of BDNF content were evident within the hippocampus of ZnT3 knockout mice and genetic elimination of BDNF reduced pY816 immunoreactivity in these mice, implicating BDNF in enhanced TrkB activation mediated by vesicular zinc depletion. These findings support the conclusion that BDNF but not vesicular zinc activates TrkB in hippocampal mossy fiber axons under physiological conditions.