Premium
Climbing Fibres as a Source of Nitric Oxide in the Cerebellum
Author(s) -
Southam Eric,
Garthwaite John
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-9568.1991.tb00825.x
Subject(s) - glutamate receptor , cerebellum , tetrodotoxin , chemistry , excitatory postsynaptic potential , sodium nitroprusside , nitric oxide , climbing fiber , antagonist , climbing , receptor , pharmacology , biophysics , medicine , endocrinology , biology , biochemistry , cerebellar cortex , ecology
Exposure of adult rat cerebellar slices to a moderately raised K + concentration (15 mM) caused a large (30‐fold) rise in the levels of cyclic GMP. Excitatory amino acid antagonists failed to inhibit this response, nor could it be mimicked by agonists active at a number of other transmitter receptors. It was, however, inhibited by the nitric oxide (NO) synthase antagonist, l ‐methylarginine (lC 50 = 10 μM), and also by tetrodotoxin (1 μM) implying that underlying the cyclic GMP response was an action potential‐dependent formation of NO. Prelesioning of climbing fibres resulted in a loss of ∼50% of the response to K + but failed to influence the effects of glutamate receptor agonists or the NO‐donor, nitroprusside. These findings point to a new mechanism for the formation of NO in the central nervous system and suggest that, in the cerebellum, climbing fibres are a source of NO.