GABA: A Pioneer Transmitter That Excites Immature Neurons and Generates Primitive Oscillations

2007 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1215-1284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yehezkel Ben-Ari ◽  
Jean-Luc Gaiarsa ◽  
Roman Tyzio ◽  
Rustem Khazipov

Developing networks follow common rules to shift from silent cells to coactive networks that operate via thousands of synapses. This review deals with some of these rules and in particular those concerning the crucial role of the neurotransmitter γ-aminobuytric acid (GABA), which operates primarily via chloride-permeable GABAAreceptor channels. In all developing animal species and brain structures investigated, neurons have a higher intracellular chloride concentration at an early stage leading to an efflux of chloride and excitatory actions of GABA in immature neurons. This triggers sodium spikes, activates voltage-gated calcium channels, and acts in synergy with NMDA channels by removing the voltage-dependent magnesium block. GABA signaling is also established before glutamatergic transmission, suggesting that GABA is the principal excitatory transmitter during early development. In fact, even before synapse formation, GABA signaling can modulate the cell cycle and migration. The consequence of these rules is that developing networks generate primitive patterns of network activity, notably the giant depolarizing potentials (GDPs), largely through the excitatory actions of GABA and its synergistic interactions with glutamate signaling. These early types of network activity are likely required for neurons to fire together and thus to “wire together” so that functional units within cortical networks are formed. In addition, depolarizing GABA has a strong impact on synaptic plasticity and pathological insults, notably seizures of the immature brain. In conclusion, it is suggested that an evolutionary preserved role for excitatory GABA in immature cells provides an important mechanism in the formation of synapses and activity in neuronal networks.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Goutierre ◽  
Sana Al Awabdh ◽  
Emeline François ◽  
Daniel Gomez-Dominguez ◽  
Theano Irinopoulou ◽  
...  

AbstractThe K+/Cl− co-transporter KCC2 (SLC12A5) regulates neuronal transmembrane chloride gradients and thereby controls GABA signaling in the brain. KCC2 downregulation is observed in several neurological and psychiatric disorders including epilepsy, neuropathic pain and autism spectrum disorders. Paradoxical, excitatory GABA signaling is usually assumed to contribute to abnormal network activity underlying the pathology. We tested this hypothesis and explored the functional impact of chronic KCC2 downregulation in the rat dentate gyrus. Although the reversal potential of GABAA receptor currents was depolarized in KCC2 knockdown neurons, this shift was fully compensated by depolarization of their resting membrane potential. This effect was due to downregulation of Task-3 leak potassium channels that we show require KCC2 for membrane trafficking. Increased neuronal excitability upon KCC2 suppression altered dentate gyrus rhythmogenesis that could be normalized by chemogenetic hyperpolarization. Our data reveal KCC2 downregulation engages complex synaptic and cellular alterations beyond GABA signaling that concur to perturb network activity, thus offering novel targets for therapeutic intervention.


Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Jianlan Chen ◽  
Jiandong Wang ◽  
Rui He ◽  
Huaizhu Shu ◽  
Chuanqing Fu

This study investigated the effective chloride diffusion coefficient of cement mortar with different water-to-cement ratio (w/c) under electrical accelerated migration measurement. The cumulative chloride concentration in anode cell solution and the cumulative chloride concentration drop in the cathode cell solution was measured by RCT measurement and the results were further used to calculate the chloride diffusion coefficient by Nordtest Build 355 method and Truc method. The influence of w/c on cement mortar’s chloride coefficient was investigated and the chloride diffusion coefficient under different determination methods were compared with other researchers’ work, a good consistency between this work’s results and literatures’ results was obtained. The results indicated that the increased w/c of cement mortar samples will have a higher chloride diffusion coefficient. The cumulative chloride concentration drop in the cathode cell solution will have deviation in early stage measurement (before 60 h) which will result in overestimation of the effective chloride diffusion coefficient.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Wei ◽  
Nianwei Huang ◽  
Yong Liu ◽  
Xi Zhang ◽  
Silun Wang ◽  
...  

Background: Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and its early stage, the mild cognitive impairment (MCI), has important scientific, clinical and social significance. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based statistical shape analysis provides an opportunity to detect regional structural abnormalities of brain structures caused by AD and MCI. Objective: In this work, we aimed to employ a well-established statistical shape analysis pipeline, in the framework of large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping, to identify and quantify the regional shape abnormalities of the bilateral hippocampus and amygdala at different prodromal stages of AD, using three Chinese MRI datasets collected from different domestic hospitals. Methods: We analyzed the region-specific shape abnormalities at different stages of the neuropathology of AD by comparing the localized shape characteristics of the bilateral hippocampi and amygdalas between healthy controls and two disease groups (MCI and AD). In addition to group comparison analyses, we also investigated the association between the shape characteristics and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) of each structure of interest in the disease group (MCI and AD combined) as well as the discriminative power of different morphometric biomarkers. Results: We found the strongest disease pathology (regional atrophy) at the subiculum and CA1 subregions of the hippocampus and the basolateral, basomedial as well as centromedial subregions of the amygdala. Furthermore, the shape characteristics of the hippocampal and amygdalar subregions exhibiting the strongest AD related atrophy were found to have the most significant positive associations with the MMSE. Employing the shape deformation marker of the hippocampus or the amygdala for automated MCI or AD detection yielded a significant accuracy boost over the corresponding volume measurement. Conclusion: Our results suggested that the amygdalar and hippocampal morphometrics, especially those of shape morphometrics, can be used as auxiliary indicators for monitoring the disease status of an AD patient.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler G. Ekins ◽  
Vivek Mahadevan ◽  
Yajun Zhang ◽  
James A. D’Amour ◽  
Timothy Petros ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTType I lissencephaly is a neuronal migration disorder caused by haploinsuffiency of the LIS1 gene and is characterized in humans by agyria, mislamination of brain structures, developmental delays, and epilepsy. Here, we investigate the impact of LIS1 mutation on the cellular migration, morphophysiology, microcircuitry and genomics of mouse hippocampal CA1 parvalbumin-containing inhibitory interneurons (PV+INTs). We find that WT PV+INTs consist of two physiological subtypes (80% fast-spiking (FS), 20% non-fast-spiking (NFS)) and four morphological subtypes (basket, axo-axonic, bistratified, radiatum-targeting). We also discover that cell-autonomous mutations within interneurons disrupts morphological development of PV+INTs and results in the emergence of a non-canonical “intermediate spiking (IS)” subset of PV+INTs. In the GlobalLis mutant, IS/NFS cells become the dominant PV+INT subtypes (56%) and the percentage of FS cells shrinks to 44%. We also find that IS/NFS cells are prone to entering depolarizing block, causing them to temporarily lose the ability to initiate action potentials and control network excitation, potentially promoting seizures. Finally, single-cell nuclear RNAsequencing of PV+INTs revealed several misregulated genes related to morphogenesis, cellular excitability, and synapse formation.


2022 ◽  
pp. 074873042110597
Author(s):  
Nathan J. Klett ◽  
Olga Cravetchi ◽  
Charles N. Allen

Both inhibitory and excitatory GABA transmission exist in the mature suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the master pacemaker of circadian physiology. Whether GABA is inhibitory or excitatory depends on the intracellular chloride concentration ([Cl−]i). Here, using the genetically encoded ratiometric probe Cl-Sensor, we investigated [Cl−]i in AVP and VIP-expressing SCN neurons for several days in culture. The chloride ratio (RCl) demonstrated circadian rhythmicity in AVP + neurons and VIP + neurons, but was not detected in GFAP + astrocytes. RCl peaked between ZT 7 and ZT 8 in both AVP + and VIP + neurons. RCl rhythmicity was not dependent on the activity of several transmembrane chloride carriers, action potential generation, or the L-type voltage-gated calcium channels, but was sensitive to GABA antagonists. We conclude that [Cl−]i is under circadian regulation in both AVP + and VIP + neurons.


Development ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 589-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hoshino ◽  
E. Suzuki ◽  
Y. Nabeshima ◽  
C. Hama

The development of neural circuits is regulated by a large number of factors that are localized at distinct neural sites. We report here the localization of one of these factors, hikaru genki (hig) protein, at synaptic clefts in the pupal and adult nervous systems of Drosophila. In hig mutants, unusually frequent bursting activity of the muscles and abnormal motor behavior during the adult stage suggest the misfunction of neuromuscular circuitry. Our immunohistochemical analyses revealed that hig protein, produced by neurons, is secreted from the presynaptic terminals into the spaces between the presynaptic and postsynaptic terminals. In addition, we have found that the localization of this protein in the synaptic spaces temporally correlates with its functional requirement during a critical period that occurs in the middle stage of pupal formation, a period when a number of dendrite and axon growth cones meet to form synapses. These findings indicate that hig protein functions in the formation of functional neural circuits from the early stages of synapse formation.


Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Liu ◽  
Weihui Deng ◽  
Wei Hu ◽  
Shan Cao ◽  
Balian Zhong ◽  
...  

The essential oil of ‘Gannanzao’ orange peel was extracted by hydrodistillation, and the extraction conditions were optimized by Box–Behnken response surface methodology. The components of essential oil were analyzed by GC-MS. Thirty-nine different components were detected, accounting for 99.59% of the total oil. Limonene (88.07%) was the prominent component. The optimal extraction conditions were as follows: liquid material ratio of 8.4:1 (mL/g), sodium chloride concentration of 5.3%, and distillation time of 3.5 h. The Cell Counting Kit-8 assay showed that ‘Gannanzao’ orange peel essential oil had good dose-dependent inhibition effect on the proliferation of HepG2 hepatoma cells and HCT116 colorectal cancer cells. When the concentration of the essential oil was 0.6 μL/mL or higher, the viability rate of both cancer cells became lower than 13.0%. The transwell assay indicated the essential oil can inhibit migration of both cancer cells at the concentration of 0.3 μL/mL.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (29) ◽  
pp. E3920-E3929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jihwan Myung ◽  
Sungho Hong ◽  
Daniel DeWoskin ◽  
Erik De Schutter ◽  
Daniel B. Forger ◽  
...  

The mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) forms not only the master circadian clock but also a seasonal clock. This neural network of ∼10,000 circadian oscillators encodes season-dependent day-length changes through a largely unknown mechanism. We show that region-intrinsic changes in the SCN fine-tune the degree of network synchrony and reorganize the phase relationship among circadian oscillators to represent day length. We measure oscillations of the clock gene Bmal1, at single-cell and regional levels in cultured SCN explanted from animals raised under short or long days. Coupling estimation using the Kuramoto framework reveals that the network has couplings that can be both phase-attractive (synchronizing) and -repulsive (desynchronizing). The phase gap between the dorsal and ventral regions increases and the overall period of the SCN shortens with longer day length. We find that one of the underlying physiological mechanisms is the modulation of the intracellular chloride concentration, which can adjust the strength and polarity of the ionotropic GABAA-mediated synaptic input. We show that increasing day-length changes the pattern of chloride transporter expression, yielding more excitatory GABA synaptic input, and that blocking GABAA signaling or the chloride transporter disrupts the unique phase and period organization induced by the day length. We test the consequences of this tunable GABA coupling in the context of excitation–inhibition balance through detailed realistic modeling. These results indicate that the network encoding of seasonal time is controlled by modulation of intracellular chloride, which determines the phase relationship among and period difference between the dorsal and ventral SCN.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 856
Author(s):  
David Wegrzyn ◽  
Christine Wegrzyn ◽  
Kerry Tedford ◽  
Klaus-Dieter Fischer ◽  
Andreas Faissner

Vav proteins activate GTPases of the RhoA subfamily that regulate the cytoskeleton and are involved in adhesion, migration, differentiation, polarity and the cell cycle. While the importance of RhoA GTPases for neuronal morphology is undisputed, their regulation is less well understood. In this perspective, we studied the consequences of the deletion of Vav2, Vav3 and Vav2 and 3 (Vav2−/−, Vav3−/−, Vav2−/−/3−/−) for the development of embryonic hippocampal neurons in vitro. Using an indirect co-culture system of hippocampal neurons with primary wild-type (WT) cortical astrocytes, we analysed axonal and dendritic parameters, structural synapse numbers and the spontaneous network activity via immunocytochemistry and multielectrode array analysis (MEA). Here, we observed a higher process complexity in Vav3−/−, but not in Vav2−/− neurons after three and five days in vitro (DIV). Furthermore, an enhanced synapse formation was observed in Vav3−/− after 14 days in culture. Remarkably, Vav2−/−/3−/− double knockout neurons did not display synergistic effects. Interestingly, these differences were transient and compensated after a cultivation period of 21 days. Network analysis revealed a diminished number of spontaneously occurring action potentials in Vav3−/− neurons after 21 DIV. Based on these results, it appears that Vav3 participates in key events of neuronal differentiation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 410-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Jin Kim ◽  
Won Shik Kim ◽  
Sang Woo Kim ◽  
Woon Yong Jung

410 Background: In our previous study, we identified three miRNAs (hsa-miR-421, hsa-miR-29b-1-5p, and hsa-miR-27b-5p) with two mRNAs (FBXO11 and CREBZF) that might play an important role in the development of gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) from premalignant adenomas. However, the expression and function of these miRNAs have not been not well characterized. Methods: We investigated the roles of CREBZF and miRNAs as potential biomarkers for the progression of gastric cancer (GC) in low-/high-grade dysplasia and early gastric cancer patients using immunohistochemical staining and miRNA in situ hybridization. Considering that targets can modulate in GC, we analyzed the CREBZF expression in gastric cancer cell lines by RT-PCR and western blot analysis. Results: We observed lower expression of CREBZF with increasing miRNAs in the MKN-74 gastric cancer cells compared to that in SNU-NCC-19. Next, the role of CREBZF in MKN-74 gastric cancer cells was investigated via cell viability and migration assays by miRNA/anti-miRNA modulation. Furthermore, we found that hsa-miR-421/hsa-miR-29b-1-5p target CREBZF and might play an important role in the migration of MKN-74 cells. Conclusions: This study suggests that increased CREBZF by hsa-miR-421/hsa-miR-29b-1-5p inhibition may be important to prevent the progression of gastric cancer in its early stage.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document