Sharp waves (SPWs) are thought to play a major role in intrinsic hippocampal operations during states in which subcortical and cortical inputs to hippocampus are reduced. This study describes evidence that such activity occurs spontaneously in appropriately prepared rat hippocampal slices. Irregular waves, with an average frequency of approximately 4 Hz, were recorded from field CA3 in slices p...

Hibernating Arctic ground squirrel (hAGS), Spermophilus parryii, survive profound decreases in cerebral perfusion during torpor and return to normal blood flow during intermittent rewarming periods without neurologic damage. Hibernating AGS tolerate traumatic brain injury in vivo, and acute hippocampal slices from hibernating animals tolerate oxygen and glucose deprivation. It remains unclear, ...

Transgenic and knockout mice are used extensively to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity. However, genetic and phenotypic variations between inbred mouse strains that are used to construct genetic models may confound the interpretation of cellular neurophysiological data derived from these models. Using in vitro slice stimulation and recording methods, we compa...

In the rat hippocampal formation, degeneration of CA4-derived afferent fibers provokes the growth of mossy fiber collaterals into the fascia dentata. These aberrant fibers subsequently form granule cell-granule cell synapses. The hippocampal slice preparation was employed to determine whether these recurrent connections are electrophysiologically functional. Hippocampal slices were prepared 12 ...

Mitochondria provide the main neuronal energy supply and are important organelles for the sequestration of intracellular Ca2+. This indicates a possible important role for mitochondria in modulating neuronal excitability in normal function as well as in disease. Therefore, we have investigated mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation in the kainate model of epilepsy. We measured the oxygen consu...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE At the early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) oligomers disturbs intracellular Ca(2+) homeostasis and disrupts synaptic plasticity of brain neurons. Prevention of Aβ-induced synaptic failure remains an unsolved problem for the treatment of AD. Here, the effects of 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB), a non-specific, but moderately pot...

The hippocampus is prone to epileptic seizures and is a key brain region and experimental platform for investigating mechanisms associated with the abnormal neuronal excitability that characterizes a seizure. Accordingly, the hippocampal slice is a common in vitro model to study treatments that may prevent or reduce seizure activity. The ketogenic diet is a metabolic therapy used to treat epile...

5-HT4 receptor (5-HT4R) activation induces pro-cognitive effects. This might be related to stimulation of hippocampal acetylcholine (ACh) release, which has been shown for 5-HT4R agonists in in vivo models. We investigated the influence of the 5-HT4R agonists prucalopride and BIMU-8 on ACh release in rat hippocampal brain slices. In contrast to the report by Siniscalchi et al. [1], no facilitat...

The hippocampal slice is a popular model system in which to study the cellular properties of long-term potentiation (LTP). Synaptogenesis induced by exposure to ice-cold artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF), however, raises the concern that morphological correlates of LTP might be obscured, especially in mature slices. Here we demonstrate that preparation of mature hippocampal slices at room t...