The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 79 No. 2 February 1998, pp. 1045-1052
Copyright ©1998 The American Physiological Society

Spiral Intercellular Calcium Waves in Hippocampal Slice Cultures

Marni E. Harris-White¹, Stephen A. Zanotti², Sally A. Frautschy¹, and Andrew C. Charles²

¹ Department of Medicine, UCLA/Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Sepulveda, CA 91343; and ² Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90095

Harris-White, Marni E., Stephen A. Zanotti, Sally A. Frautschy, and Andrew C. Charles. Spiral intercellular calcium waves in hippocampal slice cultures. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 1045-1052, 1998. Complex patterns of intercellular calcium signaling occur in the CA1 and CA2 regions of hippocampal slice organotypic cultures from neonatal mice. Spontaneous localized intercellular Ca²⁺ waves involving 5-15 cells propagate concentrically from multiple foci in the stratum oriens and s. radiatum. In these same regions, extensive Ca²⁺ waves involving hundreds of cells propagate as curvilinear and spiral wavefronts across broad areas of CA1 and CA2. Ca²⁺ waves travel at rates of 5-10 µm/s, are abolished by thapsigargin, and do not require extracellular Ca²⁺. Staining for astrocytes and neurons indicates that these intercellular waves occur primarily in astrocytes. The frequency and amplitude of Ca²⁺ waves increase in response to bath application of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and decrease in response to removal of extracellular Ca²⁺ or application of tetrodotoxin. This novel pattern of intercellular Ca²⁺ signaling is characteristic of the behavior of an excitable medium. Networks of glial cells in the hippocampus may behave as an excitable medium whose spatial and temporal signaling properties are modulated by neuronal activity.

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