Two-color, two-photon uncaging of glutamate and GABA
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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Multi-photon Intracellular Sodium Imaging Combined with UV-mediated Focal Uncaging of Glutamate in CA1 Pyramidal Neurons
Published on: October 8, 2014
Srinivas Kantevari1, Masanori Matsuzaki, Yuya Kanemoto
1Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Abstract:
We developed a caged GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), which, when combined with an appropriate caged glutamate, allows bimodal control of neuronal membrane potential with subcellular resolution using optically independent two-photon uncaging of each neurotransmitter. We used two-color, two-photon uncaging to fire and block action potentials from rat hippocampal CA1 neurons in brain slices with 720-nm and 830-nm light, respectively. Our method should be generalizable to other chemical messenger pairs.

