title: C-fos-deficient mouse hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neurons exhibit both enhanced basal and kainic acid-induced excitability.
abstract: Excitotoxicity is a process in which glutamate or other excitatory amino acids induce neuronal cell death. To address whether and how c-fos is involved in neuronal excitotoxicity, we previously generated mice in which the c-fos expression is eliminated specifically in the hippocampus. We found that these mutant mice exhibit increased kainic acid (KA)-induced seizure severity, increased neuronal excitability as measured by electroencephalogram, and increased neuronal cell death compared to wild-type control mice. To further assess the role of c-fos in regulating neuronal excitability at a cellular level, we performed hippocampal slice recording in the current study. We found that c-fos-deficient CA3 pyramidal neurons exhibit both enhanced basal and KA-induced excitability compared to normal control neurons. Our results suggest that c-fos regulates CA3 neuronal excitability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Wenzhen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Danwen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chavkin
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics*; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016762:Genes, fos; D007608:Kainic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008818:Mice, Neurologic Mutants; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000187:drug effects*; D012640:Seizures / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D007608:Kainic Acid