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Acta Physiologica 2011; Volume 203, Supplement 688
The 62nd National Congress of the Italian Physiological Society
9/25/2011-9/27/2011
Sorrento, Italy
NEURONAL HYPEREXCITABILITY IN THE MOUSE MODEL OF AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS IS NOT INDUCED BY GLIA CELLS
Abstract number: P104
ZONA1,2 C, CAIOLI1,2 S, PIERI1,2 M
1Dept Neuroscience, Univ. Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
2IRCCS, Fondazione S. Lucia, Rome, Italy
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a motor neuron disease and the mechanisms leading to selective degeneration of motor neurons are still unknown. Several pathogenetic factors have been proposed, including microglia activation and neuronal hyperexcitability, both observed in mouse models and patients. To study whether the glia cells contribute to the neuronal hyperexcitability observed in cultured cortical neurons from the transgenic mouse model (G93A) of ALS, we performed electrophysiological experiments utilizing the patch clamp technique in coculture of neurons and glial cells. Monolayer cultures of glia from Control and G93A cortices were first prepared and maintained for 21 days and neuron-enriched cell suspensions taken from Control or G93A animals were then added to the Control or G93A glia cultures. After 812 days in culture, the neuronal activity was studied by performing current clamp experiments in: gliaCtrl/neuronCtrl, gliaCtrl/neuronG93A, gliaG93A/neuronCtrl, gliaG93A/neuronG93A conditions. Interestingly, the number of action potential was not significantly different between gliaG93A/neuronG93A and gliaCtrl/neuronG93A but resulted significantly higher when compared to gliaCtrl/neuronCtrl and gliaG93A/neuronCtrl. These data strongly seem to indicate that the cortical hyperexcitability previously observed in G93A cultures was not induced by glia cells but seems to be due to an intrinsic neuronal feature, opening new area of research in the ALS physiopathology.
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Acta Physiologica 2011; Volume 203, Supplement 688 :P104