Chronic ethanol exposure facilitates facial-evoked MLI-PC synaptic transmission via nitric oxide signaling pathway in vivo in mice
Publication date: Available online 16 November 2019Source: Neuroscience LettersAuthor(s): Na Sun, Bing-Xue Li, Guang-Hui Dong, Da-Yong Li, Bai-Ri Cui, De-Lai Qiu, Song-Biao Cui, Chun-Ping ChuAbstractEthanol (EtOH) exposure causes alterations of motor coordination, balance, behavior, speech, and certain cognitive functions are considered to be caused partly by impairment of cerebellar circuits function and modulation of synaptic transmission. The cerebellar cortical molecular layer interneuron-Purkinje cell (MLI-PC) synapses are critical for various information integration and transmission, which are sensitive to acute and chronic EtOH exposure. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of chronic ethanol exposure on the facial stimulation-evoked MLI-PC synaptic transmission in urethane-anesthetized mice, by electrophysiological recording and pharmacological methods. Under current-clamp recording conditions, air-puff stimulation of ipsilateral whisker pad evoked MLI-PC synaptic transmission, which expressed an inhibitory component (P1) followed by a pause of simple spike (SS) firing in cerebellar PCs. Chronic ethanol exposure did not change the latency of the facial stimulation-evoked responses in cerebellar PCs, but induced significant enhancement of the stimulation-evoked MLI-PC synaptic transmission, which expressed increases in amplitude of P1 and pause of SS firing. The amplitude of P1 and pause of SS in ethanol exposure group were significant higher than that in...
Source: Neuroscience Letters - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research