JN Fuel your research with LabChart
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

J Neurophysiol 80: 1327-1340, 1998;
0022-3077/98 $5.00
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tian, N.
Right arrow Articles by Copenhagen, D. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tian, N.
Right arrow Articles by Copenhagen, D. R.

The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 80 No. 3 September 1998, pp. 1327-1340
Copyright ©1998 The American Physiological Society

Analysis of Excitatory and Inhibitory Spontaneous Synaptic Activity in Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells

Ning Tian, Thomas N. Hwang, and David R. Copenhagen

Departments of Ophthalmology and Physiology, University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, California 94143-0730

Tian, Ning, Thomas N. Hwang, and David R. Copenhagen. Analysis of excitatory and inhibitory spontaneous synaptic activity in mouse retinal ganglion cells. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 1327-1340, 1998. Spontaneous inhibitory and excitatory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs and sEPSCs) were identified and characterized with whole cell and perforated patch voltage-clamp recordings in adult mouse retinal ganglion cells. Pharmacological dissection revealed that all cells were driven by spontaneous synaptic inputs mediated by glutamate and gamma -aminobutyric acid-A (GABAA) receptors. One-half (7/14) of the cells also received glycinergic spontaneous synaptic inputs. Both GABAA and glycine receptor-mediated sIPSCs had rise times (10-90%) of <1 ms. The decay times of the GABAA receptor-mediated sIPSCs were comparable with those of the glycine receptor-mediated sIPSCs. The average decay time constant for monoexponentially fitted sIPSCs was 63.2 ± 74.1 ms (mean ± SD, n = 3278). Glutamate receptor-mediated sEPSCs had an average rise time of 0.50 ± 0.20 ms (n = 109) and an average monoexponential decay time constant of 5.9 ± 8.6 ms (n = 2705). Slightly more than two-thirds of the spontaneous synaptic events were monoexponential (68% for sIPSCs and 76% for sEPSCs). The remainder of the events was biexponential. The amplitudes of the spontaneous synaptic events were not correlated with rise times, suggesting that the electrotonic filtering properties of the neurons and/or differences in the spatial location of synaptic inputs could not account for the difference between the decay time constants of the glutamate and GABAA/glycine receptor-mediated spontaneous synaptic events. The amplitudes of sEPSCs were similar to those recorded in tetrodotoxin (TTX), consistent with the events measured in control saline being the response to the release of a single quantum of transmitter. The range of the sIPSC amplitudes in control saline was wider than that recorded in TTX, consistent with some sIPSCs being evoked by presynaptic spikes having an average quantal size greater than one. The rates of sIPSCs and sEPSCs were determined under equivalent conditions by recording with perforated patch electrodes at potentials at which both types of event could be identified. Two groups of ganglion cell were observed; one group had an average sEPSCs/sIPSCs frequency ratio of 0.96 ± 0.77 (n = 28) and another group had an average ratio of 6.63 ± 0.82 (n = 7). These findings suggest that a subset of cells is driven much more strongly by excitatory synaptic inputs. We propose that this subset of cells could be OFF ganglion cells, consistent with the higher frequency of spontaneous action potentials found in OFF ganglion cells in other studies.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
Y. Xia, S. Nawy, and R. C. Carroll
Activity-Dependent Synaptic Plasticity in Retinal Ganglion Cells
J. Neurosci., November 7, 2007; 27(45): 12221 - 12229.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Physiol.Home page
M. L. Veruki, S. B. Gill, and E. Hartveit
Spontaneous IPSCs and glycine receptors with slow kinetics in wide-field amacrine cells in the mature rat retina
J. Physiol., May 15, 2007; 581(1): 203 - 219.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Physiol.Home page
S. B. Gill, M. L. Veruki, and E. Hartveit
Functional properties of spontaneous IPSCs and glycine receptors in rod amacrine (AII) cells in the rat retina
J. Physiol., September 15, 2006; 575(3): 739 - 759.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
A. A. Ghavanini, D. A. Mathers, H.-S. Kim, and E. Puil
Distinctive Glycinergic Currents With Fast and Slow Kinetics in Thalamus
J Neurophysiol, June 1, 2006; 95(6): 3438 - 3448.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
J. C. Holt, J.-T. Xue, A. M. Brichta, and J. M. Goldberg
Transmission Between Type II Hair Cells and Bouton Afferents in the Turtle Posterior Crista
J Neurophysiol, January 1, 2006; 95(1): 428 - 452.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
M. A. Freed
Quantal Encoding of Information in a Retinal Ganglion Cell
J Neurophysiol, August 1, 2005; 94(2): 1048 - 1056.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
J. B. Demb, P. Sterling, and M. A. Freed
How Retinal Ganglion Cells Prevent Synaptic Noise From Reaching the Spike Output
J Neurophysiol, October 1, 2004; 92(4): 2510 - 2519.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Physiol. Rev.Home page
J. W. Lynch
Molecular Structure and Function of the Glycine Receptor Chloride Channel
Physiol Rev, October 1, 2004; 84(4): 1051 - 1095.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
C. J. Habermann, B. J. O'Brien, H. Wassle, and D. A. Protti
AII Amacrine Cells Express L-Type Calcium Channels at Their Output Synapses
J. Neurosci., July 30, 2003; 23(17): 6904 - 6913.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
J.-J. Pang, F. Gao, and S. M. Wu
Light-Evoked Excitatory and Inhibitory Synaptic Inputs to ON and OFF {alpha} Ganglion Cells in the Mouse Retina
J. Neurosci., July 9, 2003; 23(14): 6063 - 6073.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
C. R. Shields and P. D. Lukasiewicz
Spike-Dependent GABA Inputs to Bipolar Cell Axon Terminals Contribute to Lateral Inhibition of Retinal Ganglion Cells
J Neurophysiol, May 1, 2003; 89(5): 2449 - 2458.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 IOVSHome page
J. Perez-Leon, M. J. Frech, J. E. Schroder, F. Fischer, M. Kneussel, H. Wassle, and K. H. Backus
Spontaneous Synaptic Activity in an Organotypic Culture of the Mouse Retina
Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., March 1, 2003; 44(3): 1376 - 1387.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
J. Johnson, N. Tian, M. S. Caywood, R. J. Reimer, R. H. Edwards, and D. R. Copenhagen
Vesicular Neurotransmitter Transporter Expression in Developing Postnatal Rodent Retina: GABA and Glycine Precede Glutamate
J. Neurosci., January 15, 2003; 23(2): 518 - 529.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
S. Chen and J. S. Diamond
Synaptically Released Glutamate Activates Extrasynaptic NMDA Receptors on Cells in the Ganglion Cell Layer of Rat Retina
J. Neurosci., March 15, 2002; 22(6): 2165 - 2173.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
K. Matsui, J. Hasegawa, and M. Tachibana
Modulation of Excitatory Synaptic Transmission by GABAC Receptor-Mediated Feedback in the Mouse Inner Retina
J Neurophysiol, November 1, 2001; 86(5): 2285 - 2298.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
M. J. Frech, J. Perez-Leon, H. Wassle, and K. H. Backus
Characterization of the Spontaneous Synaptic Activity of Amacrine Cells in the Mouse Retina
J Neurophysiol, October 1, 2001; 86(4): 1632 - 1643.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
G. B. Awatramani and M. M. Slaughter
Intensity-Dependent, Rapid Activation of Presynaptic Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors at a Central Synapse
J. Neurosci., January 15, 2001; 21(2): 741 - 749.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
Z.-H. Pan and H.-J. Hu
Voltage-Dependent Na+ Currents in Mammalian Retinal Cone Bipolar Cells
J Neurophysiol, November 1, 2000; 84(5): 2564 - 2571.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
S.-I. Watanabe, A. Koizumi, S. Matsunaga, J. W. Stocker, and A. Kaneko
GABA-Mediated Inhibition Between Amacrine Cells in the Goldfish Retina
J Neurophysiol, October 1, 2000; 84(4): 1826 - 1834.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
B. N. Smith, B. W. Banfield, C. A. Smeraski, C. L. Wilcox, F. E. Dudek, L. W. Enquist, and G. E. Pickard
Pseudorabies virus expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein: A tool for in vitro electrophysiological analysis of transsynaptically labeled neurons in identified central nervous system circuits
PNAS, August 1, 2000; 97(16): 9264 - 9269.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
M. A. Freed
Parallel Cone Bipolar Pathways to a Ganglion Cell Use Different Rates and Amplitudes of Quantal Excitation
J. Neurosci., June 1, 2000; 20(11): 3956 - 3963.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
M. A. Freed
Rate of Quantal Excitation to a Retinal Ganglion Cell Evoked by Sensory Input
J Neurophysiol, May 1, 2000; 83(5): 2956 - 2966.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
N. Tian, C. Petersen, S. Kash, S. Baekkeskov, D. Copenhagen, and R. Nicoll
The role of the synthetic enzyme GAD65 in the control of neuronal gamma -aminobutyric acid release
PNAS, October 26, 1999; 96(22): 12911 - 12916.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Visit Other APS Journals Online