PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Gonzalez-Islas, Carlos
AU  - Chub, Nikolai
AU  - Garcia-Bereguiain, Miguel Angel
AU  - Wenner, Peter
TI  - GABAergic Synaptic Scaling in Embryonic Motoneurons Is Mediated by a Shift in the Chloride Reversal Potential
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1659-10.2010
DP  - 2010 Sep 29
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 13016--13020
VI  - 30
IP  - 39
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/39/13016.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/39/13016.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2010 Sep 29; 30
AB  - Homeostatic synaptic plasticity ensures that networks maintain specific levels of activity by regulating synaptic strength in a compensatory manner. When spontaneous network activity was blocked in vivo in the embryonic spinal cord, compensatory increases in excitatory GABAergic synaptic inputs were observed. This homeostatic synaptic strengthening was observed as an increase in the amplitude of GABAergic miniature postsynaptic currents. We find that this process is mediated by an increase in chloride accumulation, which produces a depolarizing shift in the GABAergic reversal potential (EGABA). The findings demonstrate a previously unrecognized mechanism underlying homeostatic synaptic scaling. Similar shifts in EGABA have been described following various forms of neuronal injury, introducing the possibility that these shifts in EGABA represent a homeostatic response.