The effects of galanin on long-term synaptic plasticity in the CA1 area of rodent hippocampus.
Learning and memory involve complex changes in neuronal excitability including long-lasting synaptic plasticity of glutamatergic synapses. The observation that the neuropeptide galanin affects performance in a number of behavioural models predicts that galanin should affect synaptic processes underlying learning. The present study in rat and mouse hippocampal slices now demonstrates that galanin inhibits long-term potentiation induced by both tetanic and theta-burst stimulation in both apical and basal dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurones but does not affect long-term depression. This selective effect on long-term potentiation does not appear to be mediated through inhibition of N-methyl-D-aspartate or metabotropic glutamate receptor function, but likely resides downstream of receptor activation, possibly at the level of the kinase cascade that converts short-term into long-term potentiation. Our results indicate possible mechanisms by which the neuropeptide galanin may act at the molecular level to influence learning and memory in vertebrates.
Coumis
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Department of Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh, UK. u.coumis@bristol.ac.uk
Davies
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CH
D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D019004:Galanin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013569:Synapses / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013826:Theta Rhythm; D013997:Time Factors
D019004:Galanin