Effects of chronic low level lead exposure on the physiology of individually identifiable neurons

Although chronic exposure to lead has been correlated with a variety of behavioral and neurochemical deficits in humans and other mammals, little is known of the mechanisms of action of chronic lead at the level of the individual nerve cell. We have used the individually identifiable neurons of the freshwater pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis as a model system to investigate the effects of chronic low level (5 microM) lead exposure on neuronal physiology. Thirteen neuronal parameters were measured with intracellular microelectrode recording in each of six different identifiable neurons or homogeneous neuron clusters. Results were analyzed by a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). MANOVA analysis indicates that there is a significant overall effect of lead exposure (p = 0.0001) and a significant interaction between lead and neuron type (p = 0.01). In most neuron types, chronic lead causes an increase in the resting potential, a slowing of recovery of the membrane potential after the undershoot of a spike, a decrease in spontaneous spiking activity, and a decrease in the input resistance. Lead also has differential effects on identifiable neurons, depressing excitability in some neuron types while not altering excitability in others.