The activity of the Schaffer collaterals of hippocampal CA3 neurons and hippocampal CA1 neurons has been shown to increase after lfuid percussion injury. Diazepam can inhibit the hy-perexcitability of rat hippocampal neurons after injury, but the mechanism by which it affects excitatory synaptic transmission remains poorly understood. Our results showed that diazepam treatment signiifcantly increased the slope of input-output curves in rat neurons after lfuid per-cussion injury. Diazepam signiifcantly decreased the numbers of spikes evoked by super stimuli in the presence of 15 μmol/L bicuculline, indicating the existence of inhibitory pathways in the injured rat hippocampus. Diazepam effectively increased the paired-pulse facilitation ratio in the hippocampal CA1 region following fluid percussion injury, reduced miniature excitatory postsynaptic potentials, decreased action-potential-dependent glutamine release, and reversed spontaneous glutamine release. These data suggest that diazepam could decrease the lfuid per-cussion injury-induced enhancement of excitatory synaptic transmission in the rat hippocampal CA1 area.

The cholinergic system is involved in a broad spectrum of brain function, and its failure has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Acetylcholine transduces signals through muscarinic and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, both of which inlfuence synaptic plasticity and cognition. However, the mechanisms that relate the rapid gating of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors to per-sistent changes in brain function have remained elusive. Recent evidence indicates that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors activities affect synaptic morphology and density, which result in per-sistent rearrangements of neural connectivity. Further investigations of the relationships between nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and rearrangements of neural circuitry in the central nervous system may help understand the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.

受体-受体相互作用:神经递质受体功能的一种重要调控机制

1 Introduction Neurotransmitter receptors are proteins embedded in the synaptic plasma membrane where they play a dual role in synaptic transmission.First,receptors have domains that extend into the synpatic cleft and bind neurotransmitters/agonists that are released into this space from the presynaptic neuron.Second,the binding of neurotransmitters to these domains open or close ion channels directly or indirectly in the postsynaptic membrane,or activate signalling events in the postsynaptic neuron,thus mediating the transfer of information across the synapse[1 ].