title: Nerve growth factor favours long-term depression over long-term potentiation in layer II-III neurones of rat visual cortex.
abstract: Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been shown to regulate plasticity in the visual cortex of monocularly deprived animals. However, to date, few attempts have been made to investigate the role of NGF in synaptic plasticity at the cellular level. In the study reported here we looked at the effects of exogenously applied NGF on synaptic plasticity of layer II-III regular spiking (RS) neurones in visual cortex of 16- to 18-day-old rats. We found that local application of NGF converted high frequency stimulation (HFS)-induced long-term potentiation (LTP) into long-term depression (LTD). We showed that this shift of synaptic plasticity was also obtained with bath application of NGF during HFS. Application of NGF subsequent to HFS left LTP unaffected, conferring temporal constraints on NGF efficacy. NGF effects on LTP were mediated by TrkA receptors. Indeed, blockade of TrkA by monoclonal antibody prevented NGF from inducing LTD following HFS. Low frequency stimulation (LFS) elicited LTD in RS cells. We found that NGF or blockade of NGF signalling by anti-TrkA antibody did not change the amplitude of the LTD induced by LFS. Thus, the NGF effect is selective for synaptic modifications induced by HFS in RS cells. The present results indicate that NGF may modulate the sign of long-term changes of synaptic efficacy in response to high frequency inputs.
authors.affiliation: International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA-ISAS), Neuroscience Program, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brancucci
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kuczewski
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Covaceuszach
authors.forename: Antonino
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cattaneo
authors.forename: Luciano
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Domenici
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D036881:Long-Term Synaptic Depression / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D020932:Nerve Growth Factor / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D020932:Nerve Growth Factor