Spontaneous IPSCs and glycine receptors with slow kinetics in wide-field amacrine cells in the mature rat retina
- 4 May 2007
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in The Journal of Physiology
- Vol. 581 (1), 203-219
- https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2006.127316
Abstract
The functional properties of glycine receptors were analysed in different types of wide-field amacrine cells, narrowly stratifying cells considered to play a role in larger-scale integration across the retina. The patch-clamp technique was used to record spontaneous IPSCs (spIPSCs) and glycine-evoked patch responses from mature rat retinal slices (4-7 weeks postnatal). Glycinergic spIPSCs were blocked reversibly by strychnine (300 nM). Compared to previously described spIPSCs in AII amacrine cells, the spIPSCs in wide-field amacrine cells displayed a very slow decay time course (tau(fast) approximately 15 ms; tau(slow) approximately 57 ms). The kinetic properties of spIPSCs in whole-cell recordings were paralleled by even slower deactivation kinetics of responses evoked by brief pulses of glycine (3 mm) to outside-out patches from wide-field amacrine cells (tau(fast) approximately 45 ms; tau(slow) approximately 350 ms). Non-stationary noise analysis of patch responses and spIPSCs yielded similar average single-channel conductances (approximately 31 and approximately 34 pS, respectively). Similar, as well as both lower- and higher-conductance levels could be identified from directly observed single-channel gating during the decay phase of spIPSCs and patch responses. These results suggest that the slow glycinergic spIPSCs in wide-field amacrine cells involve alpha2beta heteromeric receptors. Taken together with previous work, the kinetic properties of glycine receptors in different types of amacrine cells display a considerable range that is probably a direct consequence of differential expression of receptor subunits. Unique kinetic properties are likely to differentially shape the glycinergic input to different types of amacrine cells and thereby contribute to distinct integrative properties among these cells.Keywords
This publication has 56 references indexed in Scilit:
- Single-channel properties of glycine receptors of juvenile rat spinal motoneuronesin vitroThe Journal of Physiology, 2007
- Timing and Computation in Inner Retinal CircuitryAnnual Review of Physiology, 2007
- Populations of wide‐field amacrine cells in the mouse retinaJournal of Comparative Neurology, 2006
- Functional properties of spontaneous IPSCs and glycine receptors in rod amacrine (AII) cells in the rat retinaThe Journal of Physiology, 2006
- Studying properties of neurotransmitter receptors by non-stationary noise analysis of spontaneous synaptic currentsThe Journal of Physiology, 2006
- Characterization of the glycinergic input to bipolar cells of the mouse retinaEuropean Journal of Neuroscience, 2006
- Effects of GABA Receptor Antagonists on Retinal Glycine Receptors and on Homomeric Glycine Receptor Alpha SubunitsJournal of Neurophysiology, 2005
- Quantitative analysis of neuronal morphologies in the mouse retina visualized by using a genetically directed reporterJournal of Comparative Neurology, 2004
- Glycine Receptors and Glycinergic Synaptic Input at the Axon Terminals of Mammalian Retinal Rod Bipolar CellsThe Journal of Physiology, 2003
- The density of AMPA receptors activated by a transmitter quantum at the climbing fibre‐Purkinje cell synapse in immature ratsThe Journal of Physiology, 2003