Understanding cellular mechanisms that mediate the effects of membrane excitability on hormone release from neuroendocrine cells has been limited because of the difficulty in monitoring electrical and secretory activity simultaneously. In vertebrates, the cells of most neuroendocrine systems are widely dispersed, making electrical recording from specific neurons extremely difficult. Exceptions are the hypothalamic magnocellular neurons located in the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei that synthesize oxytocin and vasopressin. Because of their relatively discrete locations, these magnocellular neurons are the most extensively studied of the mammalian neuroendocrine cells. It is work on these neuroendocrine cells that has formed the basis for the widely cited model of neural control of hormone secretion (for reviews see Renaud & Bourque 1991, Mason et al. 1992). In this article I shall present an alternative model system for studying cellular and subcellular mechanisms that regulate neuroendocrine secretion – the bag cells of the marine mollusk Aplysia.
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