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Responses of developing pedunculopontine neurons to glutamate receptor agonists.
- Source :
-
Journal of neurophysiology [J Neurophysiol] 2011 Apr; Vol. 105 (4), pp. 1918-31. Date of Electronic Publication: 2011 Feb 23. - Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- The pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) is involved in the generation and maintenance of waking and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, forming part of the reticular activating system. The PPN receives glutamatergic afferents from other mesopontine nuclei, and glutamatergic input is believed to be involved in the generation of arousal states. We tested the hypothesis that, from postnatal days 9 to 17 in the rat, there are developmental changes in the glutamate receptor subtypes that contribute to the responses of PPN neurons. Whole cell patch-clamp recordings were conducted using brainstem slices from 9- to 17-day-old rats. All cells (types I, II, and III; randomly selected or thalamic-projecting) responded to bath application of the glutamate receptor agonists N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) and kainic acid (KA). A developmental decrease in the contribution of the NMDA receptor and developmental increase in the contribution of the KA receptor was observed following electrical stimulation-induced glutamate input. These changes were also observed following bath application in different cell types (randomly selected vs. thalamic-projecting). KA bath application produced an increase in the paired-pulse ratio (PPR) and a decrease in the frequency of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs), suggesting that presynaptic KA autoreceptors may decrease the probability of synaptic glutamate input. In contrast, NMDA application produced no changes in the PPR or mEPSCs. Changes in glutamatergic excitability of PPN cell types could underlie the developmental decrease in REM sleep.
- Subjects :
- Animals
Animals, Newborn
Electric Stimulation
Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials physiology
Female
Models, Animal
Patch-Clamp Techniques
Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus cytology
Pregnancy
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Receptors, Glutamate drug effects
Receptors, Glutamate physiology
Receptors, Kainic Acid drug effects
Receptors, Kainic Acid physiology
Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate drug effects
Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate physiology
Sleep, REM physiology
Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists pharmacology
Kainic Acid pharmacology
N-Methylaspartate pharmacology
Neurons drug effects
Neurons physiology
Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus growth & development
Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus physiology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1522-1598
- Volume :
- 105
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Journal of neurophysiology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 21346216
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00953.2010