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Improved Preparation and Preservation of Hippocampal Mouse Slices for a Very Stable and Reproducible Recording of Long-term Potentiation
Published on: June 26, 2013
Cortical nitric oxide required for presynaptic long-term potentiation in the insular cortex
Kiyofumi Yamamoto1,2, Qi-Yu Chen2,3,4, Zhaoxiang Zhou2,5
1Department of Pharmacology, Nihon University School of Dentistry, 1-8-13 Kanda-Surugadai , Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8310, Japan.
Abstract:
Nitric oxide (NO) is a key diffusible messenger in the mammalian brain. It has been proposed that NO may diffuse retrogradely into presynaptic terminals, contributing to the induction of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP). Here, we present novel evidence that NO is required for kainate receptor (KAR)-dependent presynaptic form of LTP (pre-LTP) in the adult insular cortex (IC). In the IC, we found that inhibition of NO synthase erased the maintenance of pre-LTP, while the induction of pre-LTP required the activation of KAR. Furthermore, NO is essential for pre-LTP induced between two pyramidal cells in the IC using the double patch-clamp recording. These results suggest that NO is required for homosynaptic pre-LTP in the IC. Our results present strong evidence for the critical roles of NO in pre-LTP in the IC. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Long-term potentiation: 50 years on'.
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