Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 7, 3897-3906, Copyright © 1987 by Society for Neuroscience
Role of phosphoinositide metabolites in the prolongation of afterhyperpolarizations by alpha 1-adrenoceptors in rat dorsal raphe neurons
JE Freedman and GK Aghajanian
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Afterhyperpolarizations and outward tail currents of rat dorsal raphe
neurons were measured by intracellular recording and single-electrode
voltage clamping in the brain slice preparation. The alpha 1-agonist
phenylephrine, and (in the presence of propranolol) norepinephrine,
elicited an increase in the duration, but not of the initial amplitude, of
afterhyperpolarizations and associated outward tail currents which followed
depolarizing pulses. These effects were antagonized by prazosin, indicating
that they were mediated by alpha 1-adrenoceptors. The outward tail currents
were sensitive to apamin, a blocker of certain Ca2+-activated K+ currents.
A prolongation of afterhyperpolarizations would offset the major excitatory
alpha 1 effects, which were associated with suppression of resting K+
currents and of the A-current. Since polyphosphoinositide metabolites have
been reported to be second messengers for Ca2+-dependent receptor actions,
we compared their effects with those of alpha 1-receptor stimulation on
these cells. Intracellular ejection of the putative second messenger
myo-inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate from the recording electrode transiently
mimicked the actions of alpha 1-agonists on the afterhyperpolarization.
Superfusion with 1 mM LiCl, simulating therapeutic levels of lithium, had
no effect on the rate of recovery from inositol trisphosphate ejection.
Superfusion with water-soluble phorbol esters (which mimic actions of
another phosphoinositide metabolite, 1,2-diacylglycerol) suppressed rather
than mimicked the activation of raphe cell firing by phenylephrine; this
occurred with a rank-order potency consistent with activation of protein
kinase C and was associated with suppression of a slow inward current and
of the outward tail current. Our results suggest that phosphoinositide
turnover is more likely to mediate modulatory or negative-feedback effects
of alpha 1-adrenoceptors than to mediate the major excitatory effects.