Increased Excitability And Inward Rectification In Layer V Cortical
Pyramidal Neurons In The Epileptic Mutant Mouse Stargazer.
Pasquale, Eric Di, Karl D. Keegan and Jeffrey L. Noebels.
Developmental Neurogenetics Laboratory, Department of Neurology, Section of
Neurophysiology, and Division of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, One
Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030.
APStracts 3:0245N, 1996.
ABSTRACT
The excitability of layer V cortical pyramidal neurons was studied in vitro in
the single locus mutant mouse stargazer (stg), a genetic model of spike-wave
epilepsy.Field recordings in neocortical slices from mutant mice bathed in
artificial CSF revealed spontaneous synchronous network discharges that were
never present in wild type slices. Intracellular and whole-cell recordings
from stg/stg neurons in deep layers showed spontaneous giant depolarizing
epsps generating bursts of action potentials, and a 78% reduction in the
afterburst hyperpolarization. Whole-cell recordings revealed gene-linked
differences in active membrane properties in two types of regular spiking
neurons. Single action potential rise and decay times were reduced, and the
rheobase current was decreased by 68% in mutant cells. Plots of spike
frequency-current relationships ( f- I) revealed that the gain of this
relation was augmented by 29% in the mutant. Comparisons of visually
identified pyramidal neuron firing properties in both genotypes revealed no
difference in single action potential afterhyperpolarization (AHP). Voltage
clamp recordings showed an approximately three-fold amplitude increase in a
cesium-sensitive inward rectifier. No cell density or soma size differences
were observed in the Layer V pyramidal neuron population between the two
genotypes. These results demonstrate an autonomous increase in cortical
network excitability in a genetic epilepsy model. This defect could lower the
threshold for aberrant thalamocortical spike-wave oscillations in vivo , and
may contribute to the mechanism of one form of inherited absence epilepsy.
Received 11 July 1996; accepted in final form 23 September 1996.
APS Manuscript Number J545-6.
Article publication pending J. Neurophysiol.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 13 November 1996