A Brownian model of glutamate diffusion in excitatory synapses of hippocampus

We simulated the diffusion of glutamate, following the release of a single vesicle from a pre-synaptic terminal, in the synaptic cleft by using a Brow nian diffusion model based on Langevin equations. The synaptic concentratio n time course and the time course of quantal excitatory post-synaptic curre nt have been analyzed. The results showed that they depend on the number of receptors located at post-synaptic membrane. Their time course are depende nt both on the total number of the post-synaptic receptors and on the eccen tricity of the pre-synaptic glutamate vesicle. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ir eland Ltd. All rights reserved.