Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tominaga, Keiko
• Geusz, Michael E
• Michel, Stephan
• Inouye, Shin-Ichi T

Titel

Calcium imaging in organotypic cultures of the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus

Ist Teil von

• Neuroreport, 1994-10, Vol.5 (15), p.1901-1905

Ort / Verlag

Hagerstown, MD: Lippincott-Raven Publishers

Erscheinungsjahr

1994

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• THE suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus contains a circadian pacemaker responsible for several circadian rhythms. Retinal cell projections to the SCN carry light information that phase shifts the pacemaker through the release of excitatory amino acids. To study this pathway, the Ca-sensitive dyes Fluo-3 and Fura-2 were used in organotypic slice cultures of rat SCN to visualize changes in intracellular Ca of individual cells. After at least two weeks of culture, Ca responses were measured in response to agonists of glutamate receptors in the presence of tetrodotoxin (TTX). Cells that showed a Ca increase in response to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and non-NMDA agonists also showed immuno-reactivity towards vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), providing further evidence that VIP-containing neurons receive direct retinal input. The cells differed in their responses to the NMDA and non-NMDA agonists, suggesting that the cells contain differing densities of glutamate receptor subtypes.