Altered HCN function in thalamic ventrobasal neurons of leptin-deficient mice

PERISSINOTTI PP; KARGIEMAN L; ROCHA A; GROSSO T; URBANO FJ

Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Congreso; XXXV Reunión Anual. de la. Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2020

SAN Neurociencias

The Hyperpolarization-activated Cyclic Nucleotide-gated (HCN) channel is a voltage-gated ion channel that carries the H-current (IH). The expression of HCN1-4 isoforms is abundant in the thalamus. This channel is activated at sub-threshold potentials and works as an intrinsic and slow voltage-clamp that tends to stabilize the resting membrane potential. It is involved in many neuron-level functions, which include regulation of membrane resistance, selective filtering for coincident inputs and modulation of intrinsic cellular frequency characteristics. The dense distribution of leptin receptor mRNA in the thalamus suggests that leptin could act as a neuromodulator of thalamocortical activity. Here, we studied the electrophysiological expression of IH in ventrobasal (VB) neurons in brain slices from wildtype (WT) or the leptin-deficient mouse (OB/OB).