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Selective Induction of LTP and LTD by Postsynaptic [Ca 2+ ] i Elevation

1999; American Physiological Society; Volume: 81; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1152/jn.1999.81.2.781

1522-1598

Shao-Nian Yang, Yun-gui Tang, Robert S. Zucker,

Ion channel regulation and function

Selective Induction of LTP and LTD by Postsynaptic [Ca 2+ ] i Elevation. Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), two prominent forms of synaptic plasticity at glutamatergic afferents to CA1 hippocampal pyramidal cells, are both triggered by the elevation of postsynaptic intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca 2+ ] i ). To understand how one signaling molecule can be responsible for triggering two opposing forms of synaptic modulation, different postsynaptic [Ca 2+ ] i elevation patterns were generated by a new caged calcium compound nitrophenyl-ethylene glycol-bis(β-aminoethyl ether)- N, N, N′, N′-tetraacetic acid in CA1 pyramidal cells. We found that specific patterns of [Ca 2+ ] i elevation selectively activate LTP or LTD. In particular, only LTP was triggered by a brief increase of [Ca 2+ ] i with relatively high magnitude, which mimics the [Ca 2+ ] i rise during electrical stimulation typically used to induce LTP. In contrast, a prolonged modest rise of [Ca 2+ ] i reliably induced LTD. An important implication of the results is that both the amplitude and the duration of an intracellular chemical signal can carry significant biological information.