title: Multi-walled carbon nanotube inhibits CA1 glutamatergic synaptic transmission in rat's hippocampal slices.
abstract: The purpose of the study was to investigate the neurotoxic effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the properties of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in rat's hippocampal slices using whole-cell patch clamp technique. The amplitude and frequency of excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) were accessed on the hippocampal pyramidal neurons. The alterations of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in CA3-CA1 were examined by measuring both the amplitude of evoked excitatory postsynaptic current (eEPSC) and paired-pulse ratio (PPR). The data showed that the amplitude of either spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic current (sEPSC) or miniature excitatory postsynaptic current (mEPSC) was significantly inhibited by 1 μg/mL MWCNTs. However, it was found that there was a trend of different change on the frequency index. When 1 μg/mL MWCNTs was applied, there were a decreased frequency of mEPSC and an increased frequency of sEPSC, which might be due to the effect of action potential. Furthermore, the amplitudes of eEPSC at CA3-CA1 synapses were remarkably decreased. And the mean amplitude of AMPAR-mediated eEPSC was significantly reduced as well. Meanwhile, a majority of PPRs data were greater than one. There were no significant differences of PPRs between control and MWCNTs states, but an increased trend of paired-pulse facilitation was found. These results suggested that MWCNT markedly inhibited hippocampal CA1 glutamatergic synaptic transmission in vitro, which provided new insights into the MWCNT toxicology on CNS at cellular level.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Jiajia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Science and Technology Research Institute, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Herts, UK.
authors.forename: Guogang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine Science, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China. Electronic address: zhangtao@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000187:drug effects*; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000633:toxicity*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D018698:Glutamic Acid
keywords: Excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs); Glutamatergic synaptic transmission; MWCNT; Paired-pulse facilitation (PPF); Rat’s hippocampal slices