Volume 17, Number 23,
Issue of December 1, 1997
pp. 9261-9269
Partial Hippocampal Kindling Decreases Efficacy of Presynaptic
GABAB Autoreceptors in CA1
Received June 11, 1997; revised Aug. 29, 1997; accepted Sept. 19, 1997.
Chiping Wu and
L. Stan Leung
Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences and Physiology,
University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5A5
The effect of partial hippocampal kindling, a model of temporal
lobe seizure, on monosynaptic inhibition mediated by GABA was studied.
Kindled rats were given 15 nonconvulsive hippocampal afterdischarges,
and control rats were given low frequency or no stimulations. At 1-2 d
after kindling, paired-pulse depression (PPD) of the IPSCs recorded in
CA1 neurons in vitro was significantly smaller in
kindled as compared with control rats. The difference in PPD persisted
for at least 21 d after kindling. The decrease in PPD of the IPSCs
after partial hippocampal kindling was likely caused by a reduced GABA
autoinhibition after downregulation of presynaptic GABAB
receptors. The GABAB antagonist CGP35348 (1 mM)
suppressed PPD of the IPSCs more strongly in control than in kindled
rats. Direct activation of the presynaptic GABAB receptors by baclofen suppressed the monosynaptic IPSCs significantly more in
control than in kindled rats. The decay rate of a single-pulse IPSC was
faster in kindled than in control rats on day 1 or day 21 after partial
kindling. The difference in IPSC decay between kindled and control rats
was found with or without a GABAB receptor antagonist. The
low efficacy of the presynaptic GABAB receptors in kindled
rats may provide compensatory stabilization of the postsynaptic
membrane against further seizures or plasticity.
Key words:
inhibitory postsynaptic current;
presynaptic inhibition;
GABAB receptors;
paired-pulse depression;
kindling;
seizures;
hippocampus