NMDA receptor-dependent metaplasticity at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses.

Nelson Rebola, Mario Carta, Frederic Lanore, Christophe Blanchet, Christophe Mulle
Nat Neurosci. 2011-05-01; 14(6): 691-693
DOI: 10.1038/nn.2809


Read on PubMed

---

Hippocampal mossy fiber synapses have been reported to lack NMDA receptor
(NMDAR)-dependent long-term potentiation (LTP) of AMPA excitatory postsynaptic
currents (EPSCs), unlike conventional glutamatergic synapses. An explanation for
this difference may reside in the relatively low number of NMDARs at these
synapses. Because mossy fiber synapses display LTP selective for NMDARs, we
examined whether this would affect the plasticity rules at mossy fiber-CA3
synapses in mouse hippocampal slices. We found that LTP of NMDARs serves as a
metaplastic switch making mossy fiber synapses competent for generating
NMDAR-dependent LTP of AMPA EPSCs.

Know more about