Abstract
Calcium (Ca) spike potentials were investigated in cesium-loaded, tetrodotoxin (TTX)-treated CA1 pyramidal cells in hippocampal slices from young-mature and aged rats. The duration of single Ca spike potentials was prolonged in cells from aged rats, indicating that previously observed age-related changes in Ca-dependent mechanisms (e.g. in the K-mediated after hyperpolarization and in frequency potentiation) may result from an age-related increase of voltage-dependent Ca conductance. Since we recently found that Ca spike duration in hippocampus can be modulated strongly by a form of Ca-dependent inactivation of Ca current, spike inactivation paradigms also were examined. However, following 5- or 10-s-long depolarizing pulses, or during a 2-Hz train of elicited Ca spikes, there were no age differences in percent inactivation. These results do not support (but do not fully rule out) the possibility that impaired Ca-dependent inactivation underlies the increase in the Ca spike with aging. Conceivably, this prolongation of voltage-dependent Ca influx could have implications for our understanding of normal and abnormal brain aging.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-6 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Brain Research |
| Volume | 508 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 29 1990 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgernents. We wish to thank Lee Campbell for extensive assistance with the data analyses and Joy Bauguess for expert assistance with the manuscript. This study was supported by NIH Grant AG1/4542.
Keywords
- Aging
- Calcium inactivation
- Calcium spike
- Hippocampus
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience
- Molecular Biology
- Clinical Neurology
- Developmental Biology