Highlighting Manganese Transport Mechanisms in the Nervous System with MEMRI in Aplysia Californica

Ileana Ozana Jelescu¹, Romuald Nargeot², Denis Le Bihan¹, Luisa Ciobanu¹

Manganese is increasingly used as a neuronal tract tracer but its exact transport pathways are yet to be identified. Aplysia californica provides an ideal framework of identified and large neurons to explore this matter. We performed MEMRI on its buccal ganglia to study the Mn²⁺ transport in resting state and following dopamine (DA)-induced activation. We confirmed, for the first time using MEMRI, the known axonal projections of identified motor neurons in the peripheral nerves of the ganglia. Images following DA perfusion showed intercellular Mn²⁺ transport with activation. The synapses involved are to be confirmed by ongoing experiments.