The expression of cerebellar LTD in culture is not associated with changes in AMPA-receptor kinetics, agonist affinity, or unitary conductance

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Abstract

Cerebellar long-term synaptic depression (LTD) is a model system of neuronal information storage that is expressed postsynaptically as a functional down-regulation of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors. What properties of postsynaptic AMPA receptors are changed? Several lines of evidence argue against changes in AMPA-receptor kinetics. Neither LTD evoked in cultured granule-cell Purkinje cell (PC) pairs nor an LTD-like phenomenon evoked by phorbol ester application was associated with alterations in evoked AMPA receptor-mediated excitatory post-synaptic current (EPSC) or mEPSC kinetics. LTD produced by pairing glutamate pulses with depolarization was not altered by prior application of the desensitization-reducing compound cyclothiazide. Finally, rapid application of glutamate to lifted PCs revealed no significant alterations in AMPA-receptor kinetic properties after LTD induction. When this system was used to apply varying concentrations of glutamate, no alteration in AMPA-receptor glutamate affinity was seen after LTD induction. Finally, peak-scaled nonstationary fluctuation analysis was applied to estimate AMPA-receptor unitary conductance before and after LTD induction in a cultured cell pair, and this analysis too revealed no significant change. These results suggest that cerebellar LTD may be expressed solely as a reduction in the number of functional AMPA receptors in the postsynaptic density.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)14066-14071
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume98
Issue number24
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 20 2001

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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