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Background Homeostatic intrinsic plasticity encompasses the mechanisms by which neurons stabilize their excitability in response to prolonged and destabilizing changes in global activity. However, the milieu of molecular players responsible for these regulatory mechanisms is largely unknown. Results Using whole-cell patch clamp recording and unbiased gene expression profiling in rat dissociated hippocampal neurons cultured at high density, we demonstrate here that chronic activity blockade induced by the sodium channel blocker tetrodotoxin leads to a homeostatic increase in action potential firing and down-regulation of potassium channel genes. In addition, chronic activity blockade reduces total potassium current, as well as protein expression and current of voltage-gated Kv1 and Kv7 potassium channels, which are critical regulators of action potential firing. Importantly, inhibition of N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptors alone mimics the effects of tetrodotoxin, including the elevation in firing frequency and reduction of potassium channel gene expression and current driven by activity blockade, whereas inhibition of L-type voltage-gated calcium channels has no effect. Conclusions Collectively, our data suggest that homeostatic intrinsic plasticity induced by chronic activity blockade is accomplished in part by decreased calcium influx through N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptors and subsequent transcriptional down-regulation of potassium channel genes. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13041-015-0094-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Sustained changes in network activity cause homeostatic synaptic plasticity in part by altering the postsynaptic accumulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) and α-amino-3-hydroxyle-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptors (AMPAR), which are primary mediators of excitatory synaptic transmission. A key trafficking modulator of NMDAR and AMPAR is STriatal-Enriched protein tyrosine Phosphatase (STEP61) that opposes synaptic strengthening through dephosphorylation of NMDAR subunit GluN2B and AMPAR subunit GluA2. However, the role of STEP61 in homeostatic synaptic plasticity is unknown. Findings We demonstrate here that prolonged activity blockade leads to synaptic scaling, and a concurrent decrease in STEP61 level and activity in rat dissociated hippocampal cultured neurons. Consistent with STEP61 reduction, prolonged activity blockade enhances the tyrosine phosphorylation of GluN2B and GluA2 whereas increasing STEP61 activity blocks this regulation and synaptic scaling. Conversely, prolonged activity enhancement increases STEP61 level and activity, and reduces the tyrosine phosphorylation and level of GluN2B as well as GluA2 expression in a STEP61–dependent manner. Conclusions Given that STEP61-mediated dephosphorylation of GluN2B and GluA2 leads to their internalization, our results collectively suggest that activity-dependent regulation of STEP61 and its substrates GluN2B and GluA2 may contribute to homeostatic stabilization of excitatory synapses. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13041-015-0148-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.