Affiliation:
1. Unité Mixte de Recherche 5167 du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Fédératif des Neurosciences de Lyon (IFR19), Université Claude, Lyon, France; and
2. Groupe du Centre de Neurobiologie Cellulaire et Moléculare devenu Groupe Interdisciplinaire de Génoprotéomique Appliquée—Neurosciences, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
Abstract
The hypothalamic neuropeptide melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) plays important roles in energy homeostasis, anxiety, and sleep regulation. Since the MCH receptor-1 (MCH-R1), the only functional receptor that mediates MCH functions in rodents, facilitates behavioral performance in hippocampus-dependent learning tasks, we investigated whether glutamatergic transmission in CA1 pyramidal cells could be modulated in mice lacking the MCH-R1 gene (MCH-R1−/−). We found that both α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) and N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated transmissions were diminished in the mutant mice compared with their controls. This deficit was explained, at least in part, by a postsynaptic down-regulation of these receptors since the amplitude of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents and the NMDA/AMPA ratio were decreased. Long-term synaptic potentiation (LTP) was also impaired in MCH-R1−/− mice. This was due to an altered induction, rather than an impaired, expression because repeating the induction stimulus restored LTP to a normal magnitude. In addition, long-term synaptic depression was strongly diminished in MCH-R1−/− mice. These results suggest that MCH exerts a facilitatory effect on CA1 glutamatergic synaptic transmission and long-term synaptic plasticity. Recently, it has been shown that MCH neurons fire exclusively during sleep and mainly during rapid eye movement sleep. Thus these findings provide a mechanism by which sleep might facilitate memory consolidation.
Publisher
American Physiological Society
Subject
Physiology,General Neuroscience
Cited by
34 articles.
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