Table 1.

Endogenous molecules recently shown to have a role in visual cortex plasticity. (Recently studied molecules, and the publications describing their role, are listed according to function: extracellular components, transcriptional modulators, calcium-binding proteins, nuclear factors, kinases, growth factors, GABAergic and glutamatergic transmission, neuromodulators and others. ECM, extracellular matrix; E/I, excitatory/inhibitory.)

class of molecules	proposed mechanism	references
extracellular matrix
CSPGs	consolidation of ECM	Pizzorusso et al. (2002, 2006)
PSA	maturation of inhibition	DiCristo et al. (2007)
IGFBPs	modulation of growth factors	Tropea et al. (2006)
TPA	cleavage of ECM molecules/BDNF	Mataga et al. (2002, 2004) and Oray et al. (2004)
myelin-related receptors	consolidation of circuitry	McGee et al. (2005)
nuclear factors
CREB	gene transcription	Pham et al. (1999), Mower et al. (2002), Cancedda et al. (2003) and Suzuki et al. (2004)
Arc	activation of cellular signalling/scaling	Tagawa et al. (2005), Wang et al. (2006) and McCurry et al. (2008)
IEGs	activation of cellular signalling	Lachance & Chaudhuri (2004) and Mataga et al. (2004)
transcription modulators
HDAC	chromatine rearrangement/gene expression	Putignano et al. (2007)
calcium-binding proteins
CamKII	modulator of calcium-dependent signalling	Taha et al. (2002)
calcineurin	modulator of calcium-dependent signalling	Yang et al. (2005)
troponin C	not known	Lyckman et al. (2008)
kinases
PKA	activation of cellular signalling	Beaver et al. (2001)
CamkII	modulator of calcium-dependent signalling	Taha et al. (2002)
ERK	induction of LTP	DiCristo et al. (2001) and Majdan & Shatz (2006)
growth factors
neurotrophins	maturation of circuitry	Huang et al. (1999), Lodovichi et al. (2000) and Gianfranceschi et al. (2003)
IGF1	maturation of circuitry	Obata et al. (1999), Tropea et al. (2006) and Ciucci et al. (2007)
GABAergic transmission
GABA receptors	E/I balance	Hensch et al. (1998), Fagiolini et al. (2004), Jiang et al. (2005) and Ponomarev et al. (2006)
glutamatergic transmission
MGluR	activation of cellular signalling	Wang & Daw (2003), Rao & Daw (2004) and Dolen & Bear (2008)
NMDAR	activation of cellular signalling	Quinlan et al. (1999), Sawtell et al. (2003), Chen & Bear (2006) and He et al. (2006)
neuromodulators
acetylcholine	modulator of calcium-dependent signalling	Bear & Singer (1986), Kirkwood et al. (1999) and Origlia et al. (2006)
serotonin	structural reorganization/E-I balance	Gu & Singer (1995), Kojic et al. (1997, 2000),
		Edagawa et al. (2001), Matsukawa et al. (2003) and
		Maya Vetencourt et al. (2008)
noradrenaline	modulator of calcium-dependent signalling	Bear & Singer (1986), Kirkwood et al. (1999) and Matsukawa et al. (2003)
others
PirB	structural remodelling of circuits	Syken et al. (2006)
TNFα	synaptic scaling	Kaneko et al. (2008)
cannabinoid receptors	layer-specific LTD	Crozier et al. (2007) and Liu et al. (2008)