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The Journal of Neuroscience, July 2, 2003, 23(13):5865-5876
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Post-Traumatic Hyperexcitability Is Not Caused by Impaired Buffering of Extracellular Potassium
Vijayalakshmi Santhakumar,1
Juha Voipio,2
Kai Kaila,2 and
Ivan Soltesz1
1Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology,
University of California, Irvine, California 92697-1280, and
2Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki,
00014 Helsinki, Finland
Impaired extracellular potassium buffering has been proposed as one of the
major mechanisms underlying the increased risk for temporal lobe epilepsy
after brain injury (D'Ambrosio et al.,
1999). The present study systematically tested this hypothesis by
measuring the resting [K+]o and recovery of the
stimulation-evoked [K+]o increases in the dentate gyrus
after experimental head trauma, using a combination of whole-cell recordings
and ion-selective microelectrode recordings in rat hippocampal slices. Despite
the presence of hyperexcitability, the resting [K+]o was
not increased after injury. The faster rate of increase and larger amplitude
of the orthodromically evoked [K+]o elevation after head
trauma occurred in association with a greater population spike with shorter
response latency. Contrary to the assumption in previous studies that the
evoked activity in control and injured neuronal circuits is the same during
antidromic activation, stimulation of granule cell axons in glutamate receptor
antagonists evoked a greater [K+]o increase and a larger
population spike. Although perforant path stimulation resulted in a larger
[K+]o elevation after injury, the rate of clearance of
the [K+]o transients evoked either by neuronal activity
or by external application of potassium was not compromised. The
[K+]o increase evoked by activation of the presynaptic
afferents in isolation was not increased. In addition, the postsynaptic
neuronal depolarization and firing evoked by exogenous potassium application
was decreased after trauma.
These results show that the regulation of [K+]o is
not impaired after injury and indicate that the larger
[K+]o increase evoked by neuronal activity is a
consequence, rather than the primary mechanism underlying post-traumatic
hyperexcitability.
Key words: potassium; buffering; head trauma; FPI; dentate gyrus; seizures
Received Feb. 19, 2003;
revised May. 6, 2003;
accepted May. 9, 2003.
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