This document summarizes an experiment evaluating the effects of an alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist on GABAergic synaptic transmission in rat hippocampal slices. Acute hippocampal slices were prepared from rats and patch clamp recordings were obtained from CA1 pyramidal neurons. The alpha7 nAChR agonist PNU282987 was bath applied at different concentrations. PNU282987 increased the frequency of spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents at concentrations of 30nM and 300nM, but decreased it at 1000nM, possibly due to desensitization of alpha7 nAChRs. The effects were blocked by the GABA-A receptor antagonist bicuculline, confirming the GABA
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Evaluation of alpha7 nicotinic receptor agonist on gabaergic synaptic activity
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OBJECTIVES
To document the pharmacological activity of a selective a7
nAChR agonist in an acute hippocampal slice
To illustrate the pre-synaptic modulation of a7 nAChRs on
spontaneous GABAergic synpatic transmission
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MATERIALS & METHODS
Preparation of acute rats hippocampal slices
Experiments are carried out with Sprague-Dawley between 3 and 4 week of age
Acute horizontal brain slices (400 ?m thickness) are cut with a Leica VT1200S in a ice-cold
oxygenated sucrose solution (in mM: sucrose 249, KCl 2.5, MgSO4 2, NaH2PO4 1.2, NaHCO3
26, D-glucose 11 and kynurenic acid 1).
Then 4-5 slices containing the hippocampus are incubated at room temperature for at least
1h into an incubation chamber containing ACSF (in mM: NaCl 119, KCl 2.5, CaCl2 2.5, MgCl2
1.3, NaHCO3 25, NaH2PO4 1.2, D-glucose 11). All solutions are continuously bubbled with
carbogen gas (95% CO2, 5% O2).
Slice perfusion and neurons visualization
For experiments, the slices are transferred into a recording chamber containing about 1 ml
of the above ACSF and continuously perfused with ACSF at 1.5 ml/min. Neurons are
visualized using infrared differential interference contrast (IR-DIC) microscopy and a 60x
objective. Pyramidal neurons of the CA1 region are visually identified for recordings.
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Patch-clamp recordings and analysis
Whole-cell patch clamp experiments are performed in voltage-clamp mode using a software-
controlled MultiClamp 700B amplifier in combination with a Digidata 1440A digitizer. Data were
low-pass filtered at 2 kHz before being sampled at 10 kHz using Clampex 10 (all from Molecular
Devices). The pipette solution contains (in mM): KCl 110, Kgluconate 5, NaCl 5, CaCl2 1, MgCl2 2,
EGTA 10, HEPES 10, Na2ATP 2, Na3GTP 0.3, pH 7.2. Cells are held at -60 mV. In order to block
postsynaptic spiking activities, 5 mM QX-314(-Cl) are added to the pipette solution. With a holding
potential of -60 mV, the GABA-A-evoked currents are inward. Spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic
currents (sIPSCs) are pharmacologically isolated by adding 30 ?M of the NMDA receptor antagonist
D-AP5 and 10 ?M of the AMPA/kainate receptor antagonist CNQX to the bath solution.
GABAergic spontaneous IPSCs (sIPSCs) are recorded from pyramidal cells of the CA1 area of
hippocampus for 10 minutes (control) after observing a stable activity for a 5 minute period. The
compound (PNU282987) is then wash-in for 20 minutes and, an additional 10 minutes slot is
recorded under the compound. To further verify if the sIPSCs are GABAA-mediated currents, 10 ?M
bicuculline are perfused at the end of each experiment into the bath solution to block all the
spontaneous events.
The frequency of the sIPSCs are analyzed with a proprietary script developed by NEUROSERVICE:
automatic sIPSCs detection is performed with margin of errors less than 5% in detection of the
overall events.
MATERIALS & METHODS
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RESULTS
Representative traces of recording cells under different conditions:
Freq=4,5 Hz
Freq=7,2 Hz (57% increase relative to control)
400pA
2s
400pA
2s
400pA
2s
Addition of Bicuculline at 10?M block
all activity, confirming that synaptic
events where GABAergic spontaneous
IPSCs
ACSF
ACSF + PNU282987 300nM
Control
VS
PNU282987
ACSF + PNU282987 300nM + Bicuculline 10?M
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RESULTS
Statistical analysis of the effect of PNU282987 on the frequency of sIPSCs
Cumulative plot of inter-event interval showing that
PNU282987 at 300nM increase the frequency of sIPSCs (n=6)
Change in the frequency of spontaneous activity
relative to baseline and PNU282987 at 30, 300 and
1000 nM (n=6 per concentration).
PNU282987 (nM)
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CONCLUSIONS
The frequency of the GABAergic sIPSCs recorded from pyramidal cells in the
CA1 area of the hippocampus changes in the presence of PNU282987 (30,
300, 1000nM) indicating an ?7 nAChRs-mediated modulation of GABAergic
minis sIPSCs.
As previously shown (Hajos M et al., 2004), concentrations of 30 and 300 nM
increase the frequency of sIPSCs whereas 1000 nM decreases it, possibly
reflecting the desensitization of ?7 nAChRs.
Bath application of bicuculline block all the sIPSC in pyramidal cells,
confirming the GABAergic nature of spontaneous IPSCs.
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