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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 15, 1999, 19(10):3691-3700
Glutamate Uptake Limits Synaptic Excitation of Retinal
Ganglion Cells
Matthew H.
Higgs and
Peter D.
Lukasiewicz
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and Neuroscience
Program, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
63110-1093
EPSCs of retinal ganglion cells decay more slowly than do
those of most other CNS neurons, in part because of the long time course of glutamate release from bipolar cells. Here we investigated how glutamate clearance and AMPA receptor desensitization affect ganglion cell EPSCs in the salamander retinal slice preparation. Inhibition of glutamate uptake greatly prolonged ganglion cell EPSCs
evoked by light or monosynaptic electrical stimuli but had little
effect on spontaneous miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs). This suggests that
single quanta of glutamate are cleared rapidly by diffusion but
multiple quanta can interact to lengthen the postsynaptic response.
Some interaction between quanta is likely to occur even when glutamate
uptake is not inhibited. This seems to depend on quantal content,
because reducing glutamate release with low Ca2+,
paired-pulse depression, or weak stimuli shortened the EPSC decay. High
quantal content glutamate release may lead to desensitization of
postsynaptic receptors. We reduced the extent of AMPA receptor desensitization by holding ganglion cells at positive potentials. This
increased the amplitude of the late phase of evoked EPSCs but did not
affect the decay rate after the first 50 msec of the response. In
contrast, the holding potential had little effect on mEPSC kinetics.
Our results suggest that desensitization limits the late phase of AMPA
receptor-mediated EPSCs, whereas glutamate uptake controls the
duration of both AMPA and NMDA receptor-mediated responses.
Key words:
glutamate transporter; retina; ganglion cell; AMPA
receptor; miniature EPSC; glutamate receptor desensitization
Copyright © 1999 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/99/19103691-10$05.00/0
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