Regulation of action potential waveforms by axonal GABAA receptors in cortical pyramidal neurons

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 27;9(6):e100968. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100968. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

GABAA receptors distributed in somatodendritic compartments play critical roles in regulating neuronal activities, including spike timing and firing pattern; however, the properties and functions of GABAA receptors at the axon are still poorly understood. By recording from the cut end (bleb) of the main axon trunk of layer -5 pyramidal neurons in prefrontal cortical slices, we found that currents evoked by GABA iontophoresis could be blocked by picrotoxin, indicating the expression of GABAA receptors in axons. Stationary noise analysis revealed that single-channel properties of axonal GABAA receptors were similar to those of somatic receptors. Perforated patch recording with gramicidin revealed that the reversal potential of the GABA response was more negative than the resting membrane potential at the axon trunk, suggesting that GABA may hyperpolarize the axonal membrane potential. Further experiments demonstrated that the activation of axonal GABAA receptors regulated the amplitude and duration of action potentials (APs) and decreased the AP-induced Ca2+ transients at the axon. Together, our results indicate that the waveform of axonal APs and the downstream Ca2+ signals are modulated by axonal GABAA receptors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Action Potentials*
  • Animals
  • Axons / drug effects
  • Axons / metabolism*
  • Axons / physiology
  • Calcium Signaling
  • Cerebral Cortex / cytology
  • Cerebral Cortex / metabolism*
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiology
  • GABA-A Receptor Antagonists / pharmacology
  • Gramicidin / pharmacology
  • Ionophores / pharmacology
  • Picrotoxin / pharmacology
  • Pyramidal Cells / drug effects
  • Pyramidal Cells / metabolism*
  • Pyramidal Cells / physiology
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Receptors, GABA-A / genetics
  • Receptors, GABA-A / metabolism*

Substances

  • GABA-A Receptor Antagonists
  • Ionophores
  • Receptors, GABA-A
  • Picrotoxin
  • Gramicidin

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the 973 Program (No. 2011CBA00400 YS), the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (No. 31025012 YS, 81327802 SZ), and the Hundreds of Talents Program (YS) from Chinese Academy of Sciences. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.