Homogenous glycine receptor expression in cortical plate neurons and cajal-retzius cells of neonatal rat cerebral cortex
Section snippets
Slice preparation
Tangential and coronal slices were prepared as described previously (Luhmann et al., 2000, Kilb and Luhmann, 2000). Briefly, neonatal (postnatal day [P]0–P4) Wistar rats were deeply anesthetized by hypothermia and decapitated. Animal handling was performed in accordance with international guidelines for the use of animals in research (86/609/EEC) and approved by the local ethical committee (Genehmigungsbehoerde der Landesuntersuchungsanstalt Rheinland-Pfalz). All efforts were made to minimize
Membrane properties
A total of 122 CPn and 207 CRc were used for this investigation. The mean RMP of the CPn was −54.1±1.1 mV (n=122), mean Rinput was 1.3±0.06 GΩ and mean Cinput was 63.0±3.1 nF. In accordance with previous reports (Kriegstein et al., 1987, Luhmann et al., 2000) about 84% of the cells displayed action potentials with an average amplitude of 42.4±1.2 mV (n=102) upon membrane depolarization above a threshold of −40.5±0.5 mV (Fig. 1C1). The action potentials had a width at half-maximal amplitude of
Discussion
The recent study demonstrates for the first time that the functional properties and the molecular expression pattern of glycine receptors are similar between CPn and CRc, in contrast to previous suggestions based on the pharmacological properties of glycine receptors in both cell types (Flint et al., 1998, Kilb et al., 2002). In agreement with previous studies demonstrating the abundance of these subunits in all cortical layers during early corticogenesis (Malosio et al., 1991, Sato et al., 1991
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by DFG grants Lu 375/4-1 and travel grant 446-JAP-111/1/01 to H.J.L. and JSPS-DFG Cooperative Research Grant and Grant-in-Aid 14017041 from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Culture and technology of Japan to A.F. The authors thank B. Hellmuth, B. Krumm and K. Sato for excellent technical assistance.
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A. Okabe and W. Kilb contributed equally to this work.