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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 23, 2007, 27(21):5664-5671; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0613-07.2007

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Cellular/Molecular
Recurrent Dendrodendritic Inhibition of Accessory Olfactory Bulb Mitral Cells Requires Activation of Group I Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors

Jason B. Castro,^1,3 * Kenneth R. Hovis,^2,3 * and Nathaniel N. Urban^1,2,3

¹Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, and ²Department of Biological Sciences and ³Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

Correspondence should be addressed Dr. Nathan Urban, Department of Biological Sciences and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Mellon Institute, Room 173, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Email: nurban{at}cmu.edu

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) modulate neural excitability and network tone in many brain regions. Expression of mGluRs is particularly high in the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB), a CNS structure critical for detecting chemicals that identify kin and conspecifics. Because of its relative simplicity and its direct projection to the hypothalamus, the AOB provides a model system for studying how mGluRs affect the flow of encoded sensory information to downstream areas. We investigated the role of group I mGluRs in synaptic processing in AOB slices and found that under control conditions, recurrent inhibition of principal neurons (mitral cells) was completely eliminated by the mGluR1 antagonist LY367385 [(S)-(+)--amino-4-carboxy-2 methylbenzeneacetic acid]. In addition, the group I mGluR agonist DHPG [(S)-3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine; 20 µM] induced a dramatic increase in the rate of spontaneous IPSCs. This increase was dependent on voltage-gated calcium channels but persisted even after blockade of ionotropic glutamatergic transmission and sodium channels. Together, these results indicate that mGluR1 plays a critical role in controlling information flow through the AOB and suggest that mGluR1 may be an important locus for experience-dependent changes in synaptic function.

Key words: AOB; vomeronasal; GABA; granule cell; pheromone; olfaction

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Received Dec. 15, 2006; revised April 17, 2007; accepted April 17, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed Dr. Nathan Urban, Department of Biological Sciences and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Mellon Institute, Room 173, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Email: nurban{at}cmu.edu

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