Article Figures & Data
Figures
- Figure 1.
Presynaptic NR2B-containing receptors facilitate glutamate release more in young animals than in old. A, Voltage-clamp recordings of sEPSCs in a layer V neuron in a slice from a 4-week-old animal. With postsynaptic receptors blocked by intracellular MK-801, blockade of NR2B receptors decreases the frequency of sEPSCs. B, Pooled data for an interevent interval from six neurons shows a shift to the right of the cumulative probability distribution in the presence of Ro 25-6981 compared with the control. C, In contrast, in the presence of the NR2A antagonist NVP-AAM077 (1 μm), there was a small, nonsignificant shift to the right of the cumulative probability distribution, indicating that these receptors were not controlling glutamate release in juvenile animals. D, Voltage-clamp recordings from a neuron in a slice from a 5-month-old rat. The NR2B antagonist reduced sEPSC frequency, but the effect was much less robust than in the juvenile animal. This is reflected in the pooled data for an interevent interval in adult control neurons shown in E. F, Pooled data for the effects of NVP-AAM077 in adult neurons. Again there was a small, nonsignificant increase in frequency. Ro, Ro 25-6981; c, control; NVP, NVP-AAM077.
- Figure 2.
Presynaptic NR2B receptors strongly facilitate glutamate release in epileptic animals.A,B, Voltage-clamp recordings show a robust decrease in sEPSC frequency in the presence of the NR2B antagonist in a neuron recorded in a slice from a 5-month-old epileptic rat, which contrasts with its weak effect in age-matched control animals (Fig. 1 D, E) but compares favorably with the juvenile animals (Fig. 1 A, B). C, D, The NR2B antagonist failed to alter sEPSC frequency in epileptic animals, as in young and age-matched control animals. Ro, Ro 25-6981; c, control; NVP, NVP-AAM077.
