scholarly journals The role of network architecture in the onset of spontaneous activity

STEMedicine ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diletta Pozzi ◽  
Nicolò Meneghetti ◽  
Anjan Roy ◽  
Beatrice Pastore ◽  
Alberto Mazzoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Activity ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Hippocampal Slices ◽  
Brain Slices ◽  
Gabaergic Neurons ◽  
Neuronal Cultures ◽  
Optical Transients

BACKGROUND: The spontaneous activity of neuronal networks has been studied in in vitro models such as brain slices and dissociated cultures. However, a comparison between their dynamical properties in these two types of biological samples is still missing and it would clarify the role of architecture in shaping networks’ operation. METHODS: We used calcium imaging to identify clusters of neurons co-activated in hippocampal and cortical slices, as well as in dissociated neuronal cultures, from GAD67-GFP mice. We used statistical tests, power law fitting and neural modelling to characterize the spontaneous events observed. RESULTS:  In slices, we observed intermittency between silent periods, the appearance of Confined Optical Transients (COTs) and of Diffused Optical Transients (DOTs). DOTs in the cortex were preferentially triggered by the activity of neurons located in layer III-IV, poorly coincident with GABAergic neurons. DOTs had a duration of 10.2±0.3 and 8.2±0.4 seconds in cortical and hippocampal slices, respectively, and were blocked by tetrodotoxin, indicating their neuronal origin. The amplitude and duration of DOTs were controlled by NMDA and GABA-A receptors. In dissociated cultures, we observed an increased synchrony in GABAergic neurons and the presence of global synchronous events similar to DOTs, but with a duration shorter than that seen in the native tissues. CONCLUSION: We conclude that DOTs are shaped by the network architecture and by the balance between inhibition and excitation, and that they can be reproduced by network models with a minimal number of parameters.

scholarly journals Cytoplasmic Expression of the ALS/FTD-Related Protein TDP-43 Decreases Global Translation Both in vitro and in vivo

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago E. Charif ◽  
Luciana Luchelli ◽  
Antonella Vila ◽  
Matías Blaustein ◽  
Lionel M. Igaz
Keyword(s):  
De Novo ◽  
Brain Slices ◽  
Mrna Translation ◽  
Hek293 Cells ◽  
Cytoplasmic Inclusions ◽  
Cytoplasmic Expression ◽  
Global Translation

TDP-43 is a major component of cytoplasmic inclusions observed in neurodegenerative diseases like frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To further understand the role of TDP-43 in mRNA/protein metabolism and proteostasis, we used a combined approach with cellular and animal models overexpressing a cytoplasmic form of human TDP-43 (TDP-43-ΔNLS), recapitulating ALS/FTD features. We applied in HEK293 cells a method for labeling de novo translation, surface sensing of translation (SUnSET), based on puromycin (PURO) incorporation. While control cells displayed robust puromycilation, TDP-43-ΔNLS transfected cells exhibited reduced ongoing protein synthesis. Next, by using a transgenic mouse overexpressing cytoplasmic TDP-43 in the forebrain (TDP-43-ΔNLS mice) we assessed whether cytoplasmic TDP-43 regulates global translation in vivo. Polysome profiling of brain cortices from transgenic mice showed a shift toward non-polysomal fractions as compared to wild-type littermates, indicating a decrease in global translation. Lastly, cellular level translational assessment by SUNSET was performed in TDP-43-ΔNLS mice brain slices. Control mice slices incubated with PURO exhibited robust cytoplasmic PURO signal in layer 5 neurons from motor cortex, and normal nuclear TDP-43 staining. Neurons in TDP-43-ΔNLS mice slices incubated with PURO exhibited high cytoplasmic expression of TDP-43 and reduced puromycilation respect to control mice. These in vitro and in vivo results indicate that cytoplasmic TDP-43 decreases global translation and potentially cause functional/cytotoxic effects as observed in ALS/FTD. Our study provide in vivo evidence (by two independent and complementary methods) for a role of mislocalized TDP-43 in the regulation of global mRNA translation, with implications for TDP-43 proteinopathies.

scholarly journals Ginkgo Extract EGb761 Confers Neuroprotection by Reduction of Glutamate Release in Ischemic Brain

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Mdzinarishvili ◽  
Rachita K. Sambria ◽  
Dorothee Lang ◽  
Jochen Klein
Keyword(s):  
Glutamate Release ◽  
Hippocampal Slices ◽  
Brain Slices ◽  
Cell Swelling ◽  
Experimental Stroke ◽  
Cell Degeneration ◽  
Edema Formation ◽  
Ginkgo Extract

Purpose - Ginkgo extract EGb761 has shown anti-edema and anti-ischemic effects in various experimental models. In the present study, we demonstrate neuroprotective effects of EGb761 in experimental stroke while monitoring brain metabolism by microdialysis. Methods - We have used oxygen-glucose deprivation in brain slices in vitro and middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in vivo to induce ischemia in mouse brain. We used microdialysis in mouse striatum to monitor extracellular concentrations of glucose and glutamate. Results - In vitro, EGb761 reduced ischemia-induced cell swelling in hippocampal slices by 60%. In vivo, administration of EGb761 (300 mg/kg) reduced cell degeneration and edema formation after MCAO by 35-50%. Immediately following MCAO, striatal glucose levels dropped to 25% of controls, and this reduction was not significantly affected by EGb761. Striatal glutamate levels, in contrast, increased 15-fold after MCAO; after pretreatment with EGb761, glutamate levels only increased by 4-5fold. Conclusions - We show that pretreatment with EGb761 strongly reduces cellular edema formation and neurodegeneration under conditions of ischemia. The mechanism of action seems to be related to a reduction of excitotoxicity, because ischemia-induced release of glutamate was strongly suppressed. Ginkgo extracts such as EGb761 may be valuable to prevent ischemia-induced damage in stroke-prone patients. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see “For Readers”) may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue’s contents page.

scholarly journals Conditional Upregulation of KCC2 selectively enhances neuronal inhibition during seizures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
CS Goulton ◽  
M Watanabe ◽  
DL Cheung ◽  
KW Wang ◽  
T Oba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Status Epilepticus ◽  
Transgenic Mouse ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Neuronal Excitability ◽  
Hippocampal Slices ◽  
Transport Function ◽  
Neuronal Inhibition ◽  
Proof Of Principle

Abstract/SummaryEfficacious neuronal inhibition is sustained by the neuronal K+Cl- co-transporter KCC2, and loss of KCC2 function through injury or mutation is associated with altered GABAergic signalling and neuronal seizures. Here we report a transgenic mouse with conditional KCC2 overexpression that results in increased membrane transport function. Increased KCC2 has little impact on behavioural and in vitro assays of neuronal excitability and GABAA receptor responses under resting conditions. In contrast, increased KCC2 imparts resistance to seizure-like neuronal activity in hippocampal slices and prevents the progression of mice into behavioural status epilepticus following multiple kainic acid doses. Our results demonstrate a transgenic mouse to facilitate investigations into the role of KCC2 in brain function, and provide a proof of principle that targeting KCC2 may be an effective way to selectively enhance neuronal inhibition to mitigate against diseases that involve an imbalance between excitation and inhibition.

scholarly journals Selective corticostriatal plasticity during acquisition of an auditory discrimination task

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaojie Xiong ◽  
Petr Znamenskiy ◽  
Anthony Zador
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Brain Slices ◽  
Frequency Discrimination ◽  
Auditory Discrimination ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Reward Contingencies ◽  
Corticostriatal Plasticity

Perceptual decisions are based on the activity of sensory cortical neurons, but how organisms learn to transform this activity into appropriate actions remains unknown. Projections from the auditory cortex to the auditory striatum carry information that drives decisions in an auditory frequency discrimination task1. To assess the role of these projections in learning, we developed a Channelrhodopsin-2-based assay to selectively probe for synaptic plasticity associated with corticostriatal neurons representing different frequencies. Here we report that learning this auditory discrimination preferentially potentiates corticostriatal synapses from neurons representing either high or low frequencies, depending on reward contingencies. We observed frequency-dependent corticostriatal potentiation in vivo over the course of training, and in vitro in striatal brain slices. Our findings suggest a model in which selective potentiation of inputs representing different components of a sensory stimulus enables the learned transformation of sensory input into actions.

Role of Group I Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors in the Patterning of Epileptiform Activities In Vitro

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 539-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa R. Merlin ◽  
Robert K. S. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Guinea Pig ◽  
Glutamate Receptors ◽  
Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors ◽  
Hippocampal Slices ◽  
Metabotropic Glutamate ◽  
Group I ◽  
Group I Mglurs ◽  
Synaptic Responses

Merlin, Lisa R. and Robert K. S. Wong. Role of group I metabotropic glutamate receptors in the patterning of epileptiform activities in vitro. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 539–544, 1997. In guinea pig hippocampal slices, picrotoxin elicited spontaneous epileptiform bursts 300–550 ms in duration. Additional application of ( R,S)-3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine or ( S)-3-hydroxyphenylglycine, agonists specific for group I metabotropic glutamate receptors(mGluRs), or (1 S,3 R)-1-aminocyclopentane-1,3-dicarboxylicacid, a broad-spectrum mGluR agonist, converted picrotoxin-induced interictal bursts into prolonged discharges measured on the order of seconds. The prolonged discharges induced by selective group I mGluR agonist continued to be produced for hours after agonist removal. The antagonists ( S)-4-carboxyphenylglycine and (+)-α-methyl-4-carboxyphenylglycine had no effect on the duration of picrotoxin-induced interictal bursts. However, after agonist exposure, the persistent prolonged discharges occurring in the absence of agonist were reversibly suppressed by the antagonists, suggesting that the activity is maintained via endogenous activation of group I mGluRs by synaptically released glutamate. Our results suggest that, under some conditions, activation of group I mGluRs produces long-lasting enhancement of synaptic responses, mediated at least in part by autopotentiation of the group I mGluR response itself, which may result in the production of seizure discharges and contribute to epileptogenesis.

No evidence for role of extracellular choline-acetyltransferase in generation of gamma oscillations in rat hippocampal slices in vitro

Neuroscience ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 284 ◽  
pp. 459-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.O. Hollnagel ◽  
R. ul Haq ◽  
C.J. Behrens ◽  
A. Maslarova ◽  
I. Mody ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Choline Acetyltransferase ◽  
Hippocampal Slices ◽  
Gamma Oscillations

scholarly journals Ventral pallidal GABAergic neurons control wakefulness associated with motivation through the ventral tegmental pathway

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Dong Li ◽  
Yan-Jia Luo ◽  
Wei Xu ◽  
Jing Ge ◽  
Yoan Cherasse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dopaminergic Neurons ◽  
Gabaergic Neurons ◽  
Population Activity ◽  
Lateral Habenula ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Ventral Tegmental ◽  
Stimulation Of

Abstract The ventral pallidum (VP) regulates motivation, drug addiction, and several behaviors that rely on heightened arousal. However, the role and underlying neural circuits of the VP in the control of wakefulness remain poorly understood. In the present study, we sought to elucidate the specific role of VP GABAergic neurons in controlling sleep–wake behaviors in mice. Fiber photometry revealed that the population activity of VP GABAergic neurons was increased during physiological transitions from non-rapid eye movement (non-REM, NREM) sleep to either wakefulness or REM sleep. Moreover, chemogenetic and optogenetic manipulations were leveraged to investigate a potential causal role of VP GABAergic neurons in initiating and/or maintaining arousal. In vivo optogenetic stimulation of VP GABAergic neurons innervating the ventral tegmental area (VTA) strongly promoted arousal via disinhibition of VTA dopaminergic neurons. Functional in vitro mapping revealed that VP GABAergic neurons, in principle, inhibited VTA GABAergic neurons but also inhibited VTA dopaminergic neurons. In addition, optogenetic stimulation of terminals of VP GABAergic neurons revealed that they promoted arousal by innervating the lateral hypothalamus, but not the mediodorsal thalamus or lateral habenula. The increased wakefulness chemogenetically evoked by VP GABAergic neuronal activation was completely abolished by pretreatment with dopaminergic D1 and D2/D3 receptor antagonists. Furthermore, activation of VP GABAergic neurons increased exploration time in both the open-field and light–dark box tests but did not modulate depression-like behaviors or food intake. Finally, chemogenetic inhibition of VP GABAergic neurons decreased arousal. Taken together, our findings indicate that VP GABAergic neurons are essential for arousal related to motivation.

scholarly journals Exaggerated inflammation, impaired host defense, and neuropathology in progranulin-deficient mice

2009 ◽  
Vol 207 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangfang Yin ◽  
Rebecca Banerjee ◽  
Bobby Thomas ◽  
Ping Zhou ◽  
Liping Qian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host Defense ◽  
Hippocampal Slices ◽  
Interleukin 10 ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Listeria Monocytogenes Infection ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Deficient Mice

Progranulin (PGRN) is a widely expressed protein involved in diverse biological processes. Haploinsufficiency of PGRN in the human causes tau-negative, ubiquitin-positive frontotemporal dementia (FTD). However, the mechanisms are unknown. To explore the role of PGRN in vivo, we generated PGRN-deficient mice. Macrophages from these mice released less interleukin-10 and more inflammatory cytokines than wild type (WT) when exposed to bacterial lipopolysaccharide. PGRN-deficient mice failed to clear Listeria monocytogenes infection as quickly as WT and allowed bacteria to proliferate in the brain, with correspondingly greater inflammation than in WT. PGRN-deficient macrophages and microglia were cytotoxic to hippocampal cells in vitro, and PGRN-deficient hippocampal slices were hypersusceptible to deprivation of oxygen and glucose. With age, brains of PGRN-deficient mice displayed greater activation of microglia and astrocytes than WT, and their hippocampal and thalamic neurons accumulated cytosolic phosphorylated transactivation response element DNA binding protein–43. Thus, PGRN is a key regulator of inflammation and plays critical roles in both host defense and neuronal integrity. FTD associated with PGRN insufficiency may result from many years of reduced neutrotrophic support together with cumulative damage in association with dysregulated inflammation.

Fabrication and Use of High-Speed, Concentric H+- and Ca2+-Selective Microelectrodes Suitable for In Vitro Extracellular Recording

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 919-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataliya Fedirko ◽  
Nataliya Svichar ◽  
Mitchell Chesler
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Hippocampal Slices ◽  
Brain Slices ◽  
Extracellular Recording ◽  
Neurophysiological Studies ◽  
Sensitivity And Selectivity ◽  
Glass Drawing ◽  
Susceptibility To Noise

Ion-selective microelectrodes (ISMs) have been used extensively in neurophysiological studies. ISMs selective for H+ and Ca2+ are notable for their sensitivity and selectivity, but suffer from a slow response time, and susceptibility to noise because of the high electrical resistance of the respective ion exchange cocktails. These drawbacks can be overcome by using a “coaxial” or “concentric” inner micropipette to shunt the bulk of the ion exchanger resistance. This approach was used decades ago to record extracellular [Ca2+] transients in cat cortex, but has not been subsequently used. Here, we describe a method for the rapid fabrication of concentric pH- and Ca2+-selective microelectrodes useful for extracellular studies in brain slices or other work in vitro. Construction was simplified compared with previous implementations, by using commercially available, thin-walled borosilicate glass, drawing an outer barrel with a rapid taper (similar to a patch pipette), and by use of a quick and reliable silanization procedure. Using a piezoelectric stepper to effect a rapid solution change, the response time constants of the concentric pH and Ca2+-electrodes were 14.9 ± 1.3 and 5.3 ± 0.90 ms, respectively. Use of these concentric ISMs is demonstrated in rat hippocampal slices. Activity-dependent, extracellular pH, and [Ca2+] transients are shown to arise two- to threefold faster, and attain amplitudes two- to fourfold greater, when recorded by concentric versus conventional ISMs. The advantage of concentric ISMs for studies of ion transport and ion diffusion is discussed.

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