Publications (2)10.43 Total impact
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Article: Neurosteroids exhibit differential effects on mIPSCs recorded from normal and seizure prone rats.
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ABSTRACT: In the perirhinal cortex of seizure prone (SP) rats, GABA(A)-mediated miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs) are smaller in amplitude but have longer deactivation phases than mIPSCs recorded in normal control (NC; outbred) rats. These differences in mIPSCs are correlated to the relatively higher alpha1 subunit expression in the NC rat strains and the higher alpha2, alpha3, and alpha5 subunit expression in the SP strain. Using patch-clamp recording, we investigated how the neurosteroids tetrahydrodeoxcorticosterone (THDOC) and allopregnanolone at physiological and pharmacological concentrations may differentially affect the mIPSCs in the perirhinal cortex of brain slices isolated from SP and NC rats. We found that 100 nM THDOC prolonged the time course and increased the amplitude of both the mono- and biphasic mIPSCs in the SP rats, but these effects were smaller in the NC rats. By comparison, allopregnanolone (100 nM) had small effects in both the NC and SP rats. At 1.0 microM, THDOC enhanced mIPSCs in both strains, but this effect was not greater in the SP rat than it was at 100 nM. By contrast, allopregnanolone (500 nM) enhanced the time course of the mIPSCs in both strains but it reduced mIPSC amplitudes as well. THDOC (100 nM) was much more effective than 100 nM allopregnanolone in inducing a tonic current in SP and NC rats. These data show that neurosteroids modulate synaptic activity at synapses having different biophysical behaviors. As differing GABA(A) receptors are targeted by subsets of interneurons, these data suggest these neurosteroids may selectively modulate one inhibitory input over another.Journal of Neurophysiology 10/2005; 94(3):2171-81. · 3.32 Impact Factor -
Article: Divergent GABA(A) receptor-mediated synaptic transmission in genetically seizure-prone and seizure-resistant rats.
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ABSTRACT: Recent evidence suggests that abnormal expression of GABA(A) receptors may underlie epileptogenesis. We observed previously that rats selectively bred to be seizure-prone naturally overexpressed, as adults, GABA alpha subunits (alpha2, alpha3, and alpha5) seen at birth, whereas those selected to be seizure-resistant overexpressed the adult, alpha1 subunit. In this experiment, we gathered GABA miniature IPSCs (mIPSCs) from these strains and correlated their attributes with the subunit expression profile of each strain compared with a normal control strain. The mIPSCs were collected from both cortical pyramidal and nonpyramidal neurons. In seizure-prone rats, mIPSCs were smaller and decayed more slowly than in normal rats, which in turn were smaller and slower than in seizure-resistant rats. A detailed analysis of individual mIPSCs revealed two kinds of postsynaptic responses (those with monoexponential vs biexponential decay) that were differentially altered in the three strains. The properties of monoexponentially decaying mIPSCs did not differ between pyramidal and nonpyramidal neurons within a strain but differed between strains. In contrast, an interaction was observed between cell morphology and strain for biexponentially decaying mIPSCs. Here, the mIPSCs of pyramidal neurons in the seizure-resistant rats formed a distinct subpopulation compared with the seizure-prone rats; yet in the latter rats, it was the mIPSCs of the nonpyramidal neurons that were unique. Given these differences, we were surprised to find that the total inhibitory charge transfer between the strains was similar. This suggests that the timing of inhibition, particularly slow inhibitory neurotransmission between nonpyramidal neurons, may be a contributing factor in seizure genesis.Journal of Neuroscience 12/2002; 22(22):9922-31. · 7.11 Impact Factor
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2005
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Carleton University
- Department of Psychology
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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