The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 86 No. 3 September 2001, pp. 1095-1103
Copyright ©2001 by the American Physiological Society

Mechanisms Underlying the Depression of Evoked Fast EPSCs Following In Vitro Ischemia in Rat Hippocampal CA1 Neurons

Department of Physiology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume 830-0011, Japan

Tanaka, E., S. Yasumoto, G. Hattori, S. Niiyama, S. Matsuyama, and H. Higashi. Mechanisms Underlying the Depression of Evoked Fast EPSCs Following In Vitro Ischemia in Rat Hippocampal CA1 Neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 86: 1095-1103, 2001. The mechanisms underlying the depression of evoked fast excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) following superfusion with medium deprived of oxygen and glucose (in vitro ischemia) for a 4-min period in hippocampal CA1 neurons were investigated in rat brain slices. The amplitude of evoked fast EPSCs decreased by 85 ± 7% of the control 4 min after the onset of in vitro ischemia. In contrast, the exogenous glutamate-induced inward currents were augmented, while the spontaneous miniature EPSCs obtained in the presence of tetrodotoxin (TTX, 1 µM) did not change in amplitude during in vitro ischemia. In a normoxic medium, a pair of fast EPSCs was elicited by paired-pulse stimulation (40-ms interval), and the amplitude of the second fast EPSC increased to 156 ± 24% of the first EPSC amplitude. The ratio of paired-pulse facilitation (PPF ratio) increased during in vitro ischemia. Pretreatment of the slices with adenosine 1 (A1) receptor antagonist, 8-cyclopenthyltheophiline (8-CPT) antagonized the depression of the fast EPSCs, in a concentration-dependent manner: in the presence of 8-CPT (1-10 µM), the amplitude of the fast EPSCs decreased by only 20% of the control during in vitro ischemia. In addition, 8-CPT antagonized the enhancement of the PPF ratio during in vitro ischemia. A pair of presynaptic volleys and excitatory postsynaptic field potentials (fEPSPs) were extracellularly recorded in a proximal part of the stratum radiatum in the CA1 region. The PPF ratio for the fEPSPs also increased during in vitro ischemia. On the other hand, the amplitudes of the first and second presynaptic volley, which were abolished by TTX (0.5 µM), did not change during in vitro ischemia. The maximal slope of the Ca²⁺-dependent action potential of the CA3 neurons, which were evoked in the presence of 8-CPT (1 µM), nifedipine (20 µM), TTX (0.5 µM), and tetraethyl ammonium chloride (20 mM), decreased by 12 ± 6% of the control 4 min after the onset of in vitro ischemia. These results suggest that in vitro ischemia depresses the evoked fast EPSCs mainly via the presynaptic A1 receptors, and the remaining 8-CPT-resistant depression of the fast EPSCs is probably due to a direct inhibition of the Ca²⁺ influx to the axon terminals.