ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Newborn neurons have bean shown to induce long-term potentiation (LTP). Activation of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor subunit NR2B plays an important role in mature neurons-induced LTP. But there have been no reports addressing on the effects of NR2B activation on newborn neuron-induced LTP.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of NR2B receptor antagonist Ro25-6981 on LTP induced by newborn neurons in adult rat dentate gyrus.DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: An electrophysiological recording trial was performed at the Department of Neuroblology,Shanxi Medical University from February to June 2007.MATERIALS: Twenty-six male Wistar rats, aged 3 months, were provided by Laboratory Animal Center, Shanxi Medical University.METHODS: Following sacrifice for brain harvesting under anesthesia, the hippocempus was taken to preparation of 400 μ mol/L brain slices. Using extracellular field potential recordings, low-frequency stimulation was performed in the medial molecular layer of dentate gyrus with insulated bipolar tungsten electrodes. After having stable recordings, LTP was induced under high-frequency tetanic stimulation. LTP was induced with a protocol developed previously (4 trains, 500 ms each, 100 Hz within the train, repeated every 20 s). Only those slices which produced the field excitatory postsynaptic potential of 1 mV or cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF)-induced LTP (ACSF-LTP): brain slices were divided into 2 groups: ACSF group, in which, slices were continuously perfused using ACSF bubbled with 95% O2 and 5% CO2; ACSF+ Ro25-6981 group: a 10-minute treatment with 3μ mol/L Ro25-6981 was performed prior to tetanic stimulation, and the remaining procedures were the same as ACSF divided into 2 groups: BIC group: a 10-minute treatment with 10 μmol/L BIC was performed prior to titanic stimulation; BIC+Ro25-6981 group: 3μ mol/L Ro25-6981 and 10μ mol/L BIC were simultaneously perfused 10 minutes prior to tetanic stimulation.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: LTP recording results.minutes of titanic stimulation, LTP was (164.67±2.40)% and (147.56±6.63)% in the BIC and BIC+ Ro25-6981 groups,respectively, and a significant difference existed between the two groups (P ＜ 0.05).
ABSTRACT
Objective To explore influence of electroacupuncture on somatostatin expression of newborn neurons in the hippocampus of chronic epilepsy rats.Methods The double-label immunofluorescence with confocal microscope was used to observe somatostatin expression of newborn neurons in the hippocampus of chronic epilepsy rats after electroacupuncture stimulation of Dazhui (GV14)' and Baihui (GV20)' in DuMai.Results Somatostatin expression of newborn neurons was found in the hippocampus.Moreover,in somatostatin expression of newborn neurons,epileptic rats with electroacupuncture had less than epileptic rats in the hippocampus.The former had an obviously significant difference compared with the latter (P