Chronic cold stress alters the basal and evoked electrophysiological activity of rat locus coeruleus neurons

In vivo extracellular single-unit recording techniques revealed that chronic cold stress significantly alters both the basal and the evoked electrophysiological activity of noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus of the anaesthetized rat. Following 17-21 days of chronic cold exposure (5 degrees C), the single-unit activity of histologically-identified locus coeruleus neurons in chloral hydrate-anaesthetized rats was recorded and analysed in terms of their basal firing rate and pattern of spike activity, as well as their response to footshock stimulation. There was no significant difference in the incidence of spontaneously active cells/electrode track between cold-stressed rats and control rats. However, the basal spike activity of locus coeruleus cells recorded from cold-stressed rats differed significantly from that of control rats along two dimensions: i) they displayed significantly higher basal firing rates (mean = 1.88 Hz vs 1.20 Hz, respectively); and ii) they frequently exhibited spontaneous burst-firing activity that was not observed in control rats (observed in 15/17 cold-stressed rats vs 1/26 control rats). The evoked spike activity of locus coeruleus cells in cold-stressed rats also differed significantly from that of control rats along two dimensions: i) they were more likely to respond to footshock stimulation (mean = 90.3% vs 74.4%, respectively); and ii) these responses were more likely to consist of multispike bursts of action potentials (mean = 8 bursts/50 stimulations vs 1 burst/50 stimulations, respectively). These results indicate that alterations in the electrophysiological activity of noradrenergic locus coeruleus neurons may contribute to the phenomenon of stress-induced sensitization of norepinephrine release that is thought to underlie some of the neuropathological changes that accompany long-term stress.