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RAPID REPORT |
1 Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary
2 Departments of Neurology and Physiology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| Abstract |
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(Received 14 June 2006;
accepted after revision 31 July 2006;
first published online 3 August 2006)
Corresponding author B. K. Andrásfalvy: Neuroscience Center, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, 2020 Gravier St, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. Email: bandra{at}lsuhsc.edu
| Introduction |
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Compared to excitatory inputs, distribution of inhibitory innervation of pyramidal neurons is more heterogeneous. Several distinct types of GABAergic interneuron innervate pyramidal cells, targeting different cellular compartments (Buhl et al. 1994; Halasy, 1996; Somogyi & Klausberger, 2005; Soltesz, 2006). Basket cells innervate the somata and proximal dendrites, axo-axonic cells target the initial segment of the axon, whereas distal dendrites are innervated by oriens-lacunosum-moleculare (O-LM) interneurons. Anatomical and electrophysiological studies suggest that different inhibitory neurons have distinct roles in synaptic integration (Freund & Buzsaki, 1996; Klausberger et al. 2002; Somogyi & Klausberger, 2005). The effects of certain interneuron classes on their targets depend on subcellular orientation of their connections, electrical properties of synaptic transmission and the actual postsynaptic membrane potential influenced by postsynaptic voltage-dependent ion channels.
Although detailed anatomical studies and electrophysiological works using somatic recording examined interneuronpyramidal cell interactions (Pearce, 1993; Buhl et al. 1994; Freund & Buzsaki, 1996; Hajos & Mody, 1997; Ouardouz & Lacaille, 1997; Klausberger et al. 2001; Somogyi & Klausberger, 2005), recordings of local GABAergic synaptic events along the dendritic arborization have rarely been done (Cossart et al. 2000; Dinocourt et al. 2003). In order to characterize local dendritic inhibitory synaptic events and to compare them to excitatory events, in this study we systematically investigated properties of locally evoked IPSCs recorded along the main shaft of apical dendrites of CA1 pyramidal cells.
| Methods |
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All experiments were carried out according to methods approved by the Institute of Experimental Medicine Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Briefly, mice aged between 42 and 90 days (C57BL6) were decapitated and the brains dissected and placed in cold oxygenated low-Ca2+, high-Mg2+ slicing solution. Hippocampal slices (350 µm) were prepared using previously described standard procedures (Magee & Cook, 2000). Three dendritic regions were examined, namely (1) a proximal recording location 5080 µm from the soma (where dendritic spine density becomes substantial); (2) a middle location, 100120 µm from the soma; and (3) a distal location, 180220 µm from the soma, situated about 20 µm from the border of stratum radiatum and lacunosum-moleculare. Somatic recordings of mIPSCs were also performed to focus on the highest density of the inhibitory input region according to anatomical studies (Megias et al. 2001). Experiments were conducted using an upright Zeiss Axioskope microscope equipped with differential interference contrast (DIC) optics using infrared illumination. For the measurement of mEPSCs and mIPSCs, patch pipettes (58 M
) were pulled from borosilicate glass and filled with one of the following internal solutions. For mEPSCs (mM): 120 Cs-gluconate, 20 CsCl2, 0.5 EGTA, 4 NaCl, 0.3 CaCl2, 4 Mg2ATP, 0.3 Tris2GTP, 14 phosphocreatine and 10 Hepes (pH 7.2); for mIPSCs (mM): 60 Cs-gluconate, 80 CsCl2, 0.5 EGTA, 4 NaCl, 0.3 CaCl2, 4 Mg2ATP, 0.3 Tris2GTP, 14 phosphocreatine and 10 Hepes (pH 7.2). The external solution contained 125 mM NaCl, 2.5 mM KCl, 1.25 mM NaH2PO4, 25 mM NaHCO3, 2 mM CaCl2, 2 mM MgCl2, 25 mM dextrose and 0.5 mM tetrodotoxin (TTX), bubbled with 95% O2 and 5% CO2 at room temperature (pH 7.4). All neurons had resting potentials between 60 and 75 mV. Series resistances of dendritic whole-cell recordings were between 10 and 30 M
. Miniature synaptic events were evoked by pressure ejection of a hyperosmotic (
600 mosmol l1) external solution (see Fig. 1) containing +300 mM sucrose and Hepes (10 mM) replacing NaHCO3. Synaptic events were collected between 1 and 5 s following pressure ejection of the hyperosmotic solution. AMPA receptor currents were isolated by the presence of external MgCl2 (2 mM) and (+)-bicuculline (10 mM). GABAA receptor currents were recorded in the presence of external kynurenic acid (3 mM). Currents were recorded at 70 mV using a MultiClamp 700A amplifier (Axon Instruments), filtered at 2 kHz and digitized at 10 kHz. Each recording was made from different cells. All experiments were conducted at room temperature.
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Recordings were analysed using a custom-made sofware (EVAN) written in labview by T. Hodapp and I. Mody. Events were fitted with a sum of two exponential functions to obtain peak amplitude, rise-time (2080% of peak amplitude) and decay-time (T50decay) constants. Analysis was performed only on recordings where the mean rise-time (2080% of peak amplitude) of the mEPSCs or mIPSCs was < 1 ms. In previous studies performed at 3334°C, only events with 400 µs rise-time (
of exponential fit) constants or less were examined, since slower events were unlikely to be local (Magee & Cook, 2000). In our present study at room temperature we used a wider time range, because of the temperature dependence of kinetic properties of miniature synaptic currents. Miniature EPSCs and IPSCs larger than the
4 pA threshold level were detected. Cumulative frequency plots were generated from 50 randomly picked events (at all indicated locations) from three cells each.
All experimental values are presented as mean ± S.E.M. Statistical significance (P < 0.05) was determined with one-way ANOVA and post hoc analysis with Tukey's honest significant difference test (Statistica 5.1).
| Results |
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Whole-cell recordings from different spiny regions of the apical dendritic arbor were used to record miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) (Andrásfalvy et al. 2003). Synaptic events were recorded at proximal apical dendrites (5080 µm from soma), at middle location (100120 µm) and at distal location of stratum radiatum (180220 µm from soma) of mouse hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1). The examined region of apical dendrites represents the spiny part of stratum radiatum, where the Schaffer collaterals are the sole excitatory inputs. Somatic recording of glutamatergic events was excluded, based on anatomical observations indicating that the soma and the first
50 µm of proximal dendrites lack spines. Besides analysing the properties of spontaneously occurring mEPSCs, we also used local pressure ejection of a hyperosmotic external solution to stimulate the release of synaptic vesicles (evoked mEPSCs; see Methods and Fig. 1; Magee & Cook, 2000; Andrásfalvy et al. 2003; Smith et al. 2003).
The frequency of spontaneously occurring miniature synaptic AMPA currents was found to be similar at all three recording sites on apical dendrites (Figs 2A and 4A; at
50 µm: 0.74 ± 0.36 Hz, n
= 5; at
120 µm: 0.28 ± 0.10 Hz, n
= 4; at
200 µm: 0.50 ± 0.22 Hz, n
= 6, P > 0.5, ANOVA). Frequency of evoked mEPSCs was also similar at different locations (at
50 µm: 6.50 ± 0.99 Hz; at
120 µm: 9.54 ± 3.41 Hz; at
200 µm: 9.35 ± 1.18 Hz, P > 0.2).
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50 µm, 14.71 ± 1.62 pA, n
= 5; at
120 µm, 16.82 ± 1.46 pA, n
= 4; at
200 µm, 23.26 ± 1.64 pA, n
= 6). Cumulative frequency distributions (Fig. 2B) demonstrate also that distal synaptic inputs are uniformly shifted towards larger amplitudes.
Kinetic properties of synaptic AMPA currents were also similar regardless of dendritic location (Fig. 4G, Trise20/80: at
50 µm, 439 ± 58 µs; at
120 µm, 408 ± 49 µs; at
200 µm, 432 ± 35 µs; P > 0.8; Fig. 4H, T50decay: at
50 µm, 4.76 ± 0.34 ms; at
120 µm, 4.61 ± 0.57 ms; at
200 µm, 4.27 ± 0.28 ms; P > 0.8).
Local recording of GABAergic synaptic events
After confirming that distance-dependent scaling of mEPSCs was similar to that previously established (Magee & Cook, 2000; Andrásfalvy et al. 2003; Smith et al. 2003), we next examined whether electrophysiological properties of mIPSCs also show distance-dependent alterations. Somatic and proximal apical dendrites represent
40% of symmetrical synapses (Megias et al. 2001), originating mostly from basket cells. Further away, the density of GABAergic synapses drastically decreases on apical dendrites; these synapses are formed by bistratified, CCK basket, radial and horizontal trilaminar cells (Buhl et al. 1994; Freund & Buzsaki, 1996; Megias et al. 2001; Klausberger et al. 2002). Because inhibitory synapses heavily innervate not only the dendrites but also the somata of CA1 pyramidal cells, somatic recordings were also performed in the case of mIPSCs.
The frequency of spontaneously occurring mIPSCs was high at the soma (Fig. 3; 5.36 ± 0.66 Hz, n
= 13, P < 0.005), whereas activity dramatically decreased on dendrites, already at the proximal recording site (at 50 µm: 0.91 ± 0.35 Hz, n
= 5; at
120 µm: 0.71 ± 0.31 Hz, n
= 7; at
200 µm: 0.91 ± 0.37 Hz, n
= 8). The frequency of evoked synaptic GABAA receptor-mediated currents was not significantly different between the different recording locations (Figs 3A and 4C; soma: 13.16 ± 4.39 Hz; at
50 µm: 7.37 ± 1.35 Hz; at
120 µm: 9.25 ± 1.39 Hz; at
200 µm: 9.05 ± 2.63 Hz, P > 0.5). The high spontaneous somatic mIPSC activity was not detected at dendritic recordings, even at the closest (
50 µm) location, suggesting that the high somatic activity may represent a technical artifact of somatic patching or that it may be disproportionately attenuated by the short dendritic segment.
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50 µm: 15.3 ± 1.8 pA, n
= 5; at
120 µm: 14.4 ± 1.5 pA, n
= 7; at
200 µm: 17.85 ± 2.1 pA, n
= 8, P > 0.5), indicating that, in contrast to excitatory AMPA receptor-mediated currents, inhibitory GABAA receptor-mediated synaptic events do not exhibit distance-dependent increase of amplitudes. Cumulative frequency distributions (Fig. 3B) from different locations almost overlap each other, even the most distal event amplitude shifts are not significant.
Kinetic properties of synaptic GABA currents were also similar at different recording sites (Fig. 4I and J; Trise20/80: soma, 501 ± 20 µs; at
50 µm, 442 ± 34 µs; at
120 µm, 481 ± 32 µs; at
200 µm, 504 ± 43 µs, P > 0.5; T50decay: soma, 7.4 ± 0.3 ms; at
50 µm, 7.1 ± 0.6 ms; at
120 µm, 6.6 ± 0.4 ms; at
200 µm, 6.1 ± 0.3 ms, P > 0.1).
| Discussion |
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The most important finding of our study is that, while excitatory synapses show distance-dependent scaling, inhibitory synaptic currents exhibit similar amplitude and kinetic properties along the dendritic tree. The lack of a counterbalancing mechanism alleviating the effects of dendritic cable attenuation for GABAA receptor-mediated synaptic currents is consistent with the main role of dendritic inhibitory synapses; i.e. the precise control of local excitatory conductances to adjusting their impact on somatic output. In contrast, distance-dependent scaling of excitatory synaptic events ensures that these synapses can have the same impact on the soma, regardless of their remote location.
We also found that the frequency of spontaneous synaptic GABA receptor currents at the somatic region was significantly higher than further away from soma, whereas the frequency of evoked synaptic GABA receptor currents did not differ between different dendritic locations. Kinetic properties of synaptic GABA currents were similar everywhere, similar to AMPA receptor-mediated currents that did not show kinetic differences along the dendrites. In our experiments the high spontaneous somatic mIPSC activity was not present at nearby (
50 µm) dendritic recordings, suggesting that the close location of the recording pipettes to the highest density of inhibitory terminals (soma, soma-neck) during somatic patching may enhance GABA release.
Cossart et al. (2000) showed decreased dendritic mIPSCs compared to somatic mIPSCs. Their dendritic data included recordings 120480 µm away from the soma, raising the possibility that anatomically heterogeneous inputs (Megias et al. 2001) might have been lumped together. In addition, the spatial origins of the events were not controlled and the wide rise-time criteria used in their study allowed the inclusion of remotely generated events in the analysis.
Previous studies describing fast and slow synaptic GABAA-receptor-mediated events, have focused on two anatomically distinct regions (stratum lacunosum-moleculare and stratum radiatum) of CA1 pyramidal neurons (Pearce, 1993; Pouille & Scanziani, 2004). Several recent studies (Glykys & Mody, 2006; Prenosil et al. 2006) have come to the conclusion that the slow GABAergic spontaneous events originally described by Pearce might be generated by overspill. In the presence of TTX, the likelihood of overspill is reduced, thus the lack of slow events in our recordings.
Several experimental and theoretical studies (Miles et al. 1996; Cossart et al. 2000; Yang et al. 2003) also support the idea that spatially distributed inhibitory events have different effects on postsynaptic cell activity and these events have mostly local impact. However, recently published findings support possible excitatory roles of GABAergic events on pyramidal neurons (Gulledge & Stuart, 2003; Szabadics et al. 2006). The excitatory role of GABAergic inputs depends on their spatiotemporal relationship to other depolarizing events (Gulledge & Stuart, 2003) and on locally increased intracellular Cl concentrations possibly resulting from Cl transporter density differences between the axo-somato-dendritic axis (Szabadics et al. 2006). Nevertheless, the lack of distance-dependent scaling of dendritic GABA synapses found in our study is consistent with their main role of controlling the effectiveness of local excitatory conductances.
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| Acknowledgements |
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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