Functional disconnection of striatal projection neurons of the direct pathway

ESCANDE MV; BELFORTE J; MURER MG

Huerta Grand, Córdoba

Congreso; XXVIII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurocienci; 2013

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurocienci

Neural Circuit Physiology Poster Number 159 / Session 3 Functional disconnection of striatal projection neurons of the direct pathway Mariela Escande, Juan Belforte, Mario Gustavo Murer LFCN, Fac. de Medicina, U.B.A. marie_escande@yahoo.com.ar ________________________________________________________ Although changes in the input connectivity to striatal projection neurons (MSNs) could be involved in the appearance of clinical manifestation of Parkinson?s disease, how they correlate with different stages of dopaminergic depletion has not yet been evaluated. We used mice expressing fluorescent proteins under the control of the D1 and D2 dopamine receptors to identify neurons belonging to direct (D1-MSN) or indirect (D2-MSN) pathways. Immunohistochemical analyses show that Drd1-td tomato and Drd2-EGFP report D1 and D2 MSNs with high selectivity. We performed in vivo juxtacellular recordings in order to study the responses of striatal neurons to frontal cortex and thalamic stimulation in control, partially and fully dopamine depleted mice under anesthesia. In control animals, D1-MSNs respond more to cortical stimulation than D2-MSNs despite their lower intrinsic excitability (p