Study on long-term potentiation in developing rat visual cortex during the critical period of plasticity

To study the property of LTP in layers II -IV of the rats visual cortex at different postnatal days induced by pairing low-frequency stimulation at layer IV with post synaptic depolarization in order to explore the synaptic and cellular mechanism of experience-dependent plasticity in the visual cortex.

Postsynaptic currents (PSCs) of layers II -IV in visual cortex slices of Wistar rats aged P0-29 d were recorded by patch-clamp whole cell recording method. Long-term potentiation (LTP) was induced by low-frequency stimulation (LFS) at 1Hz for 60-90 s. Each pulse of the LFS paired with depolarization of post-synaptic neurons to -20 mV.100 microM APV, a kind of competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, was both applied to some slices to test the property of LTP.

1. The LTP incidence was very low before PlOd (5/34), and increased rapidly to the top at P15-24 d (17/28), then decreased sharply to 1/5 at P25-29 d, coinciding well with the critical period of plasticity of rat visual cortex. The LTP incidence of P15-29 d (after eye opening, 18/33) was significantly higher than that of P0-14 d (before eye opening, 12/43, P < 0.05). 2. Compared with non-APV applied group (30/76), LTP incidence of APV applied group (4/33) was significantly decreased (P < 0.01). There were 4 LV-IV horizontal synapses. APV application could not block the LTP induction.

1. LTP was a reflection of naturally occurring, experience-dependent plasticity in rat visual cortex. The patterned visual stimuli received after eye opening might be an activation factor of the synaptic plasticity. 2. LTP of visual cortex induced by LFS in layer IV paired with postsynaptic depolarization was NMDA receptor dependent during the critical period of visual plasticity. However, there were LTP existed in IV-IV horizontal synapses which could not be blocked by 100microM APV.