Absence of cerebellar long-term depression in mice lacking neuronal nitric oxide synthase

Extensive pharmacological evidence suggests that nitric oxide (NO) is a crucial transmitter for cerebellar long-term depression (LTD), a long-lasting decrease in efficacy of the synapses from parallel fibers onto Purkinje neurons, triggered by coincident presynaptic activity and postsynaptic depolarization. We now show that LTD cannot be induced in Purkinje neurons under whole-cell patch clamp in cerebellar slices from young adult mice genetically lacking neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). This genetic evidence confirms the essentiality of NO and nNOS for LTD in young adult rodents. Surprisingly, LTD in cells from nNOS knockout mice cannot be rescued by photolytic uncaging of NO and cGMP inside Purkinje neurons, although such stimuli circumvent acute pharmacological inhibition of nNOS and soluble guanylate cyclase in normal rodents. Also slices from knockout mice show no deficit in cGMP elevation in response to exogenous NO. Therefore, prolonged absence of nNOS allows atrophy of the signaling pathway downstream of cGMP.