ABSTRACT
There is increasing evidence suggesting that glial cells play a crucial role in the formation and maturation of neural circuits. However, little is known about the effects of glial alterations on the establishment of functional circuitry in vivo during the development. The taiep rat, a long-lived neurological mutant characterized by early astrogliosis and demyelination affecting selectively the CNS, provides an interesting model to study the glia-neuron interaction in situ. In the present study, we evaluated the functional development of segmental neural circuits recording the monosynaptic reflex responses (MSR) in the isolated spinal cord of neonatal taiep rats. To evaluate the developmental changes during the first two postnatal weeks, we measured the latency of MSR, the magnitude of depression to paired pulses and the time course of post-tetanic recovery. During the early postnatal period, the MSR of control rats reduced their latency and decreased their sensitivity to depression, as a function of age. By contrast, the MSR of taiep rats failed to develop further from neonatal stage. Near the end of the second postnatal week, the MSR latencies were still prolonged, and the MSR showed a significantly stronger paired pulse depression, and higher post-tetanic recovery times than the age-matched controls. The lack of MSR maturation in taiep rats suggests an early alteration of functional mechanisms underlying the maturation of the spinal reflexes, probably due to the characteristic glial dysfunction(s) of this mutant.
