title: Multiple sources of striatal inhibition are differentially affected in Huntington's disease mouse models.
abstract: In Huntington's disease (HD) mouse models, spontaneous inhibitory synaptic activity is enhanced in a subpopulation of medium-sized spiny neurons (MSNs), which could dampen striatal output. We examined the potential source(s) of increased inhibition using electrophysiological and optogenetic methods to assess feedback and feedforward inhibition in two transgenic mouse models of HD. Single whole-cell patch-clamp recordings demonstrated that increased GABA synaptic activity impinges principally on indirect pathway MSNs. Dual patch recordings between MSNs demonstrated reduced connectivity between MSNs in HD mice. However, while connectivity was strictly unidirectional in controls, in HD mice bidirectional connectivity occurred. Other sources of increased GABA activity in MSNs also were identified. Dual patch recordings from fast spiking (FS) interneuron-MSN pairs demonstrated greater but variable amplitude responses in MSNs. In agreement, selective optogenetic stimulation of parvalbumin-expressing, FS interneurons induced significantly larger amplitude MSN responses in HD compared with control mice. While there were no differences in responses of MSNs evoked by activating single persistent low-threshold spiking (PLTS) interneurons in recorded pairs, these interneurons fired more action potentials in both HD models, providing another source for increased frequency of spontaneous GABA synaptic activity in MSNs. Selective optogenetic stimulation of somatostatin-expressing, PLTS interneurons did not reveal any significant differences in responses of MSNs in HD mice. These findings provide strong evidence that both feedforward and to a lesser extent feedback inhibition to MSNs in HD can potentially be sources for the increased GABA synaptic activity of indirect pathway MSNs.
authors.affiliation: Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Brain Research Institute, Semel Institute for Neuroscience, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cepeda
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Galvan
authors.forename: Sandra M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Holley
authors.forename: Shilpa P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Véronique M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: André
authors.forename: Elian P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Botelho
authors.forename: Jane Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Joseph B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Deisseroth
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Levine
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology*