Minocycline does not affect long-term potentiation in the anterior cingulate cortex of normal adult mice.
It has been reported that activated microglia plays important roles in chronic pain-related sensory signaling at the spinal cord dorsal horn. Less is known about the possible contribution of microglia to cortical plasticity that has been found to be important for chronic pain. In the present study, we used a 64-channel multi-electrode array recording system to investigate the role of microglia in cortical plasticity of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in normal adult mice. We found that bath application of minocycline, an inhibitor of microglial activation, had no effect on postsynaptic LTP (post-LTP) induced by theta burst stimulation in the ACC. Furthermore, presynaptic LTP (pre-LTP) induced by the combination of low-frequency stimulation with a GluK1-containing kainate receptor agonist was also not affected. The spatial distribution of post-LTP or pre-LTP among the cingulate network is also unaltered by minocycline. Our results suggest that minocycline does not affect cingulate plasticity and neurons are the major player in pain-related cortical plasticity.
Center for Neuron and Disease, Frontier Institutes of Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China. sqyz3000@sina.com.
Qian
Q
Song
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A8, Canada. lmg11302000@126.com.|Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Institute of Medical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China. lmg11302000@126.com.
Ming-Gang
MG
Liu
Center for Neuron and Disease, Frontier Institutes of Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China. min.zhuo@utoronto.ca.|Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A8, Canada. min.zhuo@utoronto.ca.
Min
M
Zhuo
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004566:Electrodes; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008911:Minocycline / Q000494:pharmacology*
D008911:Minocycline