Abstract
Phasic and tonic inhibitory currents of hippocampal pyramidal neurons exhibit distinct pharmacological properties. Picrotoxin and bicuculline methiodide inhibited both components, consistent with a role for GABAA receptors; however, gabazine, at a concentration that abolished miniature GABAergic inhibitory postsynaptic currents and responses to exogenous GABA, had no effect on tonic currents. Because all GABA-activated GABAA receptors in pyramidal neurons are gabazine-sensitive, it follows that tonic currents are not GABA-activated. Furthermore, picrotoxin-sensitive spontaneous single-channel events recorded from outside-out patches had the same chord conductance as GABA-activated channels and were gabazine-resistant. Therefore, we hypothesize that GABAA receptors, constitutively active in the absence of GABA, mediate tonic current; the failure of gabazine to block tonic current reflects a lack of negative intrinsic efficacy of the antagonist. We compared the negative efficacies of bicuculline and gabazine using the general anesthetic propofol to directly activate GABAA receptors native to pyramidal neurons or α1β3γ2 receptors recombinantly expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Propofol activated gabazine-resistant, bicuculline-sensitive currents when applied to either preparation. Although gabazine had negligible efficacy as an inhibitor of propofol-activated currents, it prevented inhibition by bicuculline, which acts as an inverse agonist inhibiting GABA-independent gating. Recombinant α1β1/3γ2 receptors also mediated agonist-independent tonic currents that were resistant to gabazine and inhibited by bicuculline. Thus, gabazine is a competitive antagonist with negligible negative efficacy and is therefore unable to inhibit GABAA receptors that are active in the absence of GABA because of either anesthetic or spontaneous gating. Moreover, spontaneously active GABAA receptors mediate gabazine-resistant tonic currents in pyramidal neurons.
GABA type A (GABAA) receptors mediate phasic and tonic inhibition of neurons in several brain regions (Farrant and Nusser, 2005). Tonic inhibition is the focus of considerable interest because of its pervasive role in governing neuronal excitability. Receptors mediating phasic and tonic inhibition in the same neurons may differ in their subunit combinations. Indeed, there is considerable scope for heterogeneity because GABAA receptors are pentameric containing various combinations of α1-6, β1-3, γ1-3, δ, ρ1-3, ϵ, and π subunits (Whiting et al., 1999). Most receptors contain α, β, and γ subunits. However, in cerebellar granule cells, tonically active extrasynaptic GABAA receptors contain α6, β2/3, and δ subunits (Nusser et al., 1998). Synaptic receptors in the same cells lack the δ subunit and contain the γ2 subunit. The δ subunit enhances the affinity of extrasynaptic GABAA receptors by enabling them to respond to low levels of ambient GABA. By analogy to the cerebellum, the activation of extrasynaptic receptors by ambient GABA has become the model for tonic GABAA receptor activity throughout the central nervous system. The alternative possibility that tonically active GABAA receptors exhibit spontaneous gating has been largely ignored (Farrant and Nusser, 2005).
Unlike those of cerebellar granule cells, tonic and phasic inhibitory currents recorded from hippocampal pyramidal neurons seem to differ in their sensitivities to the antagonist gabazine (Bai et al., 2001). Indeed, several studies suggest that tonically active GABAA receptors are gabazine-resistant. However, this is controversial because gabazine inhibits GABAA receptors activated by exogenous GABA or when ambient GABA concentrations are increased (Overstreet and Westbrook, 2001; Stell et al., 2003). Furthermore, the only known GABAA receptors that mediate gabazine-insensitive GABA-evoked currents contain ρ subunits (often referred to as GABAC receptors), which are predominantly expressed in the retina (Zhang et al., 2001).
Additional interest in the identity of tonically active GABAA receptors derives from the proposal that they are the preferred target of general anesthetics (Bieda and MacIver, 2004; Hemmings et al., 2005; Cheng et al., 2006). Several intravenous anesthetics and neurosteroids activate GABAA receptors in the absence of GABA and this action may participate in a subsequent loss of consciousness (Schulz and Macdonald, 1981). In addition, direct GABAA receptor activation by anesthetics may also contribute to the respiratory depression that compromises the therapeutic indexes of these agents. Although it seems that anesthetics activate GABAA receptors by binding to the receptor protein, the mechanism of anesthetic-evoked activation remains elusive (Hemmings et al., 2005). However, it is clear that anesthetics do not activate GABAA receptors by acting as GABA-mimetics at the GABA binding site (Davies et al., 1997). GABAA receptors formed by the expression of the β3 subunit alone are resistant to activation by GABA but can be activated by propofol. However, the activation of GABAA receptors by anesthetics such as propofol can be inhibited by the GABAA receptor-competitive antagonist bicuculline (Hales and Lambert, 1991). In contrast, propofol-evoked currents recorded from pyramidal neurons are resistant to gabazine, giving rise to the hypothesis that propofol selectively activates extrasynaptic receptors (Bieda and MacIver, 2004).
Here, we tested an alternative hypothesis that gabazine is effectively a neutral competitive antagonist that has negligible efficacy as an inhibitor of GABAA receptors active in the absence of GABA. In contrast, we hypothesize that bicuculline displays significant negative intrinsic efficacy. We tested these hypotheses in cultured rodent hippocampal pyramidal neurons and in HEK293 cells expressing rodent α1β1γ2, α1β3γ2, or α1β3ϵ GABAA receptors.
Materials and Methods
Hippocampal Cultures. Hippocampal tissue was dissected from 1- to 3-day-old rats and placed in a papain solution (1.4 mg/ml papain and 30 mg/ml bovine serum albumin in Hanks' balanced salt solution) and incubated at 37°C for 20 min. The papain solution was aspirated and replaced with a solution of ovomucoid (1 mg/ml) and bovine serum albumin (30 mg/ml) in Hanks' balanced salt solution. Tissue was triturated using flame-polished Pasteur pipettes. The supernatant was aspirated after centrifugation, and dissociated cells were resuspended by trituration in a medium containing modified Eagle's medium-α [80% (v/v)], fetal calf serum [10% (v/v)], horse serum [10% (v/v)], glucose (5 mg/ml), 50 μg/ml streptomycin, and 50 U/ml penicillin. Cells were plated on poly(l-lysine) (1 mg/ml)-coated 33-mm diameter dishes at a density of 5 × 105 cells/ml medium. After 24 h, the medium was replaced by an incubation medium containing Neurobasal A [98% (v/v)], B27 supplement [2% (v/v)], 50 μg/ml streptomycin, and 50 U/ml penicillin. On day 4, the medium was replaced by incubation medium supplemented with cytosine-β-d-arabinofuranoside (5 μM) to inhibit the growth of glia. On day 5, the medium was replaced by incubation medium lacking cytosine-β-d-arabinofuranoside. Tissue culture reagents were supplied by Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA). Electrophysiological recordings were performed using hippocampal neurons that displayed pyramidal morphology maintained for 7 to 21 days in culture.
HEK293 Cell Culture and Transfection. HEK293 cells were maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% bovine serum, 50 μg/ml streptomycin, and 50 U/ml penicillin in an atmosphere of 5% CO2. Cells were transfected by calcium phosphate precipitation with equimolar ratios of rodent α1, β3, and γ2L GABAA subunit cDNAs in the pCDM8 vector (Davies et al., 1997). In several experiments, the rat β1 or ϵ GABAA subunit cDNAs, also in the pCDM8 vector, were used instead of either the β3 or γ2 cDNAs, respectively. Cells were used 24 to 96 h after transfection for electrophysiological experiments.
Electrophysiology: Whole-Cell Recording. The whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique was used to record currents from single hippocampal neurons and HEK293 cells voltage-clamped at -60 mV. The recording chamber was continuously and rapidly (5 ml/min) perfused by gravity feed with an extracellular solution of the following composition: 140 mM NaCl, 2.8 mM KCl, 2.0 mM MgCl2, 1.0 mM CaCl2, 6.0 mM glucose, and HEPES-NaOH, pH 7.2. Recording electrodes contained 140 mM CsCl, 2.0 mM MgCl2, 0.1 mM CaCl2, 3 mM ATP (Mg2+ salt), 1.1 mM EGTA, and HEPES-CsOH, pH 7.2. Miniature GABAergic inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs) were recorded from hippocampal neurons in the presence of 6-cyano-2,3-dihydroxy-7-nitroquinoxaline (CNQX; 10 μM) and 2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate (AP5; 10 μM) to inhibit ionotropic glutamate receptors and tetrodotoxin (TTX; 1 μM) to block action potentials (reagents supplied by Sigma, St. Louis, MO). Membrane currents were monitored with an Axopatch-200A amplifier (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA). Currents were low-pass-filtered at 2 kHz (Bessel characteristics). In experiments examining activation of GABAA receptors, GABA or propofol was applied either to the perfusate or locally by pressure ejection (Picospritzer II; General Valve Corporation, Fairfield, NJ) from micropipettes positioned approximately 50 μm from the cell under investigation. Whole-cell currents were digitized at a frequency of 10 kHz onto the hard drive of a Pentium personal computer and were analyzed with pCLAMP 8.0 software (Molecular Devices).
Recording Single-Channel Activity. Single-channel currents recorded from outside-out patches were low-pass-filtered at 1 kHz (Bessel characteristics) and digitized at 10 kHz for acquisition onto the hard drive of a Pentium personal computer as described previously (Hales et al., 2006). GABA (1 μM) and/or gabazine (20 μM) was applied directly to patches by local pressure ejection, as was picrotoxin (100 μM). Gabazine-resistant spontaneous channels were recorded before GABA application with gabazine (20 μM) in the recording chamber. For consistency with whole-cell recordings from hippocampal neurons, the extracellular solution was supplemented with CNQX (10 μM), AP5 (10 μM), and TTX (1 μM).
Drugs Used. Gabazine (SR95531), bicuculline methiodide, CNQX, AP5, TTX, strychnine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and glycine were maintained as frozen stock solutions in distilled water at -20°C and diluted to their working concentrations in saline on the day of experimentation. Picrotoxin in dimethyl sulfoxide, 2,6-diisopropylphenol (propofol) in ethanol, and furosemide in ethanol were kept as stock solutions at -20°C and diluted to their working concentrations in saline on the day of experimentation. All reagents were supplied by Sigma.
Analysis. A modified logistic equation was used to fit inhibition curves as described previously (Adodra and Hales, 1995). In preparation for the measurement of single-channel amplitudes or tonic current amplitudes, sections of digitized data were selected for the creation of all-points amplitude histograms using Fetchan (pCLAMP 8.0; Molecular Devices). In the case of tonic currents, data between synaptic events were used, first digitizing control data and then digitizing data recorded in the presence of the antagonist. In the case of single-channel records, baseline currents were leak-subtracted using Clampfit (pCLAMP 8.0). Multiple Gaussians were fitted (leastsquares minimization) to amplitude histograms using the Simplex method within pSTAT (pCLAMP 8.0). The amplitude of the single-channel current recorded from each patch was determined from the difference between the mean current amplitudes determined from the Gaussians fitted to the closed- and unitary open-state currents. Single-channel conductances are reported as the chord conductances derived from γ = i/(Vm - Erev) where i is unitary current amplitude, Vm is the holding potential, and Erev is the reversal potential of single-channel currents.
Results
Pharmacology of Tonic GABAA Receptor-Mediated Currents Recorded from Cultured Pyramidal Neurons in the Absence of Exogenous GABA. Phasic mIPSCs and sustained tonic currents were recorded from cultured hippocampal neurons in the presence of TTX (0.5 μM) to block action potentials and CNQX (10 μM) and AP5 (10 μM) to inhibit ionotropic glutamate receptor activity (Fig. 1). Currents were recorded in the whole-cell configuration from neurons voltage-clamped at -60 mV. Picrotoxin (100 μM) inhibited mIPSCs and the tonic currents (Fig. 1, A and F). Picrotoxin increased the steady-state input resistance of pyramidal neurons (p < 0.05), measured by applying hyperpolarizing steps (15-20 mV), by 0.22 ± 0.07 MΩ (n = 6). All neurons that lasted the course of the experiment (n = 25) responded to picrotoxin, exhibiting reduced mean inward current with a range from 3.2 to 73 pA, as determined from amplitude histogram analysis (see Materials and Methods). The competitive GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline methiodide (20 μM) also inhibited mIPSCs but was less effective than picrotoxin at reducing tonic current (Fig. 1, B and F). The competitive antagonist gabazine (20 μM) had no effect on tonic currents and did not significantly alter input resistance (n = 5) but abolished mIPSCs (Fig. 1, C and F). Zn2+ (100 μM), an inhibitor of GABAA receptor activity, inhibited tonic currents and had relatively little effect on mIPSCs (Fig. 1, D and F). To compare the antagonist sensitivities of tonic currents among neurons, we normalized the amplitude of the inhibited current to the membrane capacitance, an approach that provides a measurement of the density of antagonistsensitive current (Fig. 1F).
Hippocampal pyramidal neurons express glycine receptors (Thio and Zhang, 2006). It is unlikely that these receptors contribute to the tonic current because their activity is potentiated by Zn2+, which inhibited tonic currents (Fig. 1, D and F). Nevertheless, we investigated whether glycine receptors contribute to tonic currents of pyramidal neurons by applying strychnine (100 nM). Glycine (100 μM) activated small inward currents (272 ± 106 pA) when applied locally by pressure ejection to pyramidal neurons voltage-clamped at -60 mV. Glycine-activated currents were abolished by bath-applied 100 nM strychnine (Fig. 1E, n = 5). In contrast, strychnine had no effect on tonic currents recorded from pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1F).
We also examined the effect of furosemide (600 μM) on tonic currents recorded from pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1F). Furosemide inhibits currents mediated by spontaneously gating recombinant GABAA receptors containing the human ϵ subunit (Maksay et al., 2003) but had no effect on tonic currents recorded from pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1F).
These data demonstrate that tonic currents recorded from cultured hippocampal pyramidal neurons are sensitive to inhibition by picrotoxin, bicuculline methiodide (hereafter referred to as bicuculline), and Zn2+ but are resistant to inhibition by gabazine, strychnine, and furosemide.
Pharmacological Properties of Currents Activated by Exogenous GABA Recorded from Pyramidal Neurons. Our characterization of the antagonist sensitivities of tonic currents in pyramidal neurons is consistent with previous studies (Bai et al., 2001; Farrant and Nusser, 2005). However, there are conflicting reports of the effect of gabazine on tonic current in the literature (Stell and Mody, 2002). The addition of exogenous GABA or increasing ambient GABA levels by other means to enhance tonic GABAA receptor activity may contribute to this discrepancy (Overstreet and Westbrook, 2001; Stell and Mody, 2002; Stell et al., 2003). To address this, we examined the pharmacology of currents activated by the addition of exogenous GABA (Fig. 2, A and B). GABA (5 μM) activated large desensitizing inward currents (mean peak current amplitude = 1.2 ± 0.4 nA) that were inhibited by 94 ± 3% (n = 6) and 97 ± 3% (n = 4) by the application of either bicuculline (20 μM) or gabazine (20 μM), respectively (Fig. 2, A and B). These data demonstrate that tonic currents recorded from pyramidal neurons in the absence of added GABA (Fig. 1) are pharmacologically dissimilar to those activated by exogenous GABA (5 μM).
Spontaneous Gabazine-Resistant Picrotoxin-Sensitive Single Channels. We investigated the properties of GABAA receptors in outside-out membrane patches excised from pyramidal neurons. GABA (1 μM) activated robust currents in recordings from outside-out patches (Fig. 3A). Such GABA-activated currents were prevented by application of gabazine (20 μM). However, brief duration, spontaneous single-channel events were evident even during the application of gabazine (Fig. 3, A and B). The application of picrotoxin (100 μM) abolished spontaneous channels (Fig. 3B), which had the same amplitude as channels activated by GABA (Fig. 3, C and D). The chord conductance of the spontaneous events was 24.1 ± 0.5 pS (n = 9), similar to that of GABA (1 μM)-activated channels (25.7 ± 0.2 pS, n = 3) subsequently recorded from several of the same patches (Fig. 3, D and E). In these experiments, it is unlikely that spontaneous channels were activated by GABA released from neurons because patches were moved up to 1 mm from the bottom of the recording chamber without a decrease in channel activity. Furthermore, unlike GABA-evoked currents recorded from either whole pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1) or outside-out patches (Fig. 3A), spontaneous channels were resistant to gabazine. Our outside-out patch recordings support the hypothesis that gabazine-resistant tonic current is mediated by GABA-independent spontaneous GABAA receptor gating.
Antagonist Sensitivity of Propofol Activated Currents Recorded from Pyramidal Neurons. We hypothesize that the failure of gabazine to inhibit spontaneous GABAA receptor activity stems from the antagonist's lack of negative intrinsic efficacy. The general anesthetic propofol directly activates GABAA receptors (Hales and Lambert, 1991) through a site distinct from that of GABA (Davies et al., 1997). Based on the resistance of these currents to gabazine, it has been suggested that propofol primarily activates extrasynaptic receptors in pyramidal neurons (Bieda and MacIver, 2004). However, a lack of negative efficacy of gabazine could explain the resistance of propofol-activated currents to this antagonist. We examined the antagonist sensitivity of propofol-activated currents recorded from cultured pyramidal neurons (Fig. 4A). Gabazine (20 μM) caused a relatively modest inhibition (25 ± 4%, n = 12) of the propofol-evoked current amplitude (Fig. 4, A and B). By contrast, bicuculline (20 μM) inhibited propofol-activated currents by 85 ± 5% (n = 13). Application of gabazine (20 μM) to pyramidal neurons significantly attenuated (p < 0.001) the inhibition of the propofol-activated current by bicuculline (20 μM), demonstrating that gabazine is in fact binding to propofol-activated GABAA receptors in pyramidal neurons and yet has negligible negative efficacy (Fig. 4B).
Antagonist Sensitivity of Propofol Activated Currents Mediated by Recombinant GABAA Receptors. We examined whether the resistance of propofol-activated currents to gabazine was unique to GABAA receptors expressed by the hippocampus or a more general rule for propofol-activated receptors. We investigated properties of GABA and propofol-activated currents mediated by recombinant α1β3γ2 receptors. This subunit combination was chosen in part because it is unlikely to mimic that of extrasynaptic receptors in hippocampal neurons, which probably contain the α5 subunit (Caraiscos et al., 2004) and possibly the β1 subunit (Mangan et al., 2005). GABA (100 μM)-evoked currents recorded from HEK293 cells expressing recombinant α1β3γ2 receptors were abolished by bicuculline (IC50 = 1.9 ± 0.3 μM) and gabazine (IC50 = 0.4 ± 0.1 μM) (Fig. 5A). Bicuculline (IC50 = 3.0 ± 1.5 μM) also abolished propofol (10 μM)-activated currents mediated by α1β3γ2 receptors (Fig. 5B). In contrast, gabazine (1-100 μM) caused a maximum inhibition of 13% (Fig. 5B). Consistent with our observations in hippocampal pyramidal neurons, gabazine (10 μM) abolished the inhibition of propofol-activated currents by bicuculline (10 μM; Fig. 5, C and D). Taken together, these data suggest that the failure of gabazine to block propofol-activated currents in pyramidal neurons is due not to a receptor subtypediscriminative effect but to a lack of negative intrinsic activity of this GABA antagonist.
Flunitrazepam and Loreclezole Elicit Currents in Pyramidal Neurons in the Absence of Exogenous GABA. In addition to propofol, several other allosteric modulators of GABAA receptor function enhance currents activated by GABA (Whiting et al., 1999). Like propofol, the sedative-hypnotic agent loreclezole potentiates GABA-evoked currents and directly activates GABAA receptors in the absence of GABA. Loreclezole, unlike propofol, selectively affects receptors that contain either the β2 or β3 subunit, having a negligible effect on receptors containing the β1 subunit. Sedative-hypnotic benzodiazepines such as flunitrazepam also enhance GABA-evoked currents but do not directly activate GABAA receptors, and their actions are dependent on the presence of a γ subunit (Schulz and Macdonald, 1981; Whiting et al., 1999). When bath was applied to cultured hippocampal pyramidal neurons, loreclezole (10 μM) activated inward currents in all cells tested (Fig. 6A). Loreclezole-evoked currents had a mean amplitude of -265 ± 42 pA (n = 5). The ability of loreclezole to activate currents indicates that at least some of the GABAA receptors in pyramidal neurons contain β2 and/or β3 subunits. Flunitrazepam (1 μM) also elicited inward currents, albeit smaller than those seen in response to loreclezole, in all pyramidal neurons tested (n = 9) with a mean amplitude of -35 ± 10 pA (Fig. 6B). These data suggest that flunitrazepam is enhancing either tonic currents activated by low levels of ambient GABA or the gating of spontaneous currents. The GABAA antagonist gabazine (20 μM) abolished GABA-evoked currents recorded from pyramidal neurons (Fig. 2). Therefore, if flunitrazepam elicits currents in pyramidal neurons by enhancing ambient GABA, flunitrazepam-evoked currents should be abolished by gabazine. Gabazine (20 μM) had no significant effect (p = 0.31) on the amplitude of flunitrazepam (1 μM)-evoked currents (-20 ± 9 pA, n = 6).
These data indicate that at least some of the GABAA receptors in pyramidal neurons contain β2 and/or β3 subunits and γ subunits. Furthermore, flunitrazepam enhances tonic currents in a manner that is resistant to gabazine.
Antagonist Sensitivity of Tonic Currents Mediated by Recombinant Rodent α1β3ϵ GABAA Receptors. We examined whether the pharmacological properties of spontaneously gating recombinant GABAA receptors matched those of tonic currents recorded from pyramidal neurons. The human ϵ subunit enhances spontaneous gating, producing robust picrotoxin-sensitive tonic currents when incorporated into recombinant GABAA receptors (Neelands et al., 1999; Davies et al., 2001; Maksay et al., 2003). It is interesting that bicuculline inhibits spontaneous currents mediated by ϵ subunit-containing receptors, and gabazine is less efficacious in this respect (Maksay et al., 2003). Like picrotoxin, furosemide abolishes spontaneous currents mediated by human α1β3ϵ receptors but has no effect on tonic currents recorded from either mouse (Caraiscos et al., 2004) or rat pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1F). We tested rat α1β3ϵ receptors to determine whether the rodent ϵ subunit (Davies et al., 2002) also conferred furosemide-sensitive tonic currents. Picrotoxin (100 μM) applied to the bath inhibited relatively large spontaneous currents mediated by α1β3ϵ receptors expressed in HEK293 cells (Fig. 7A). The density of current inhibited by picrotoxin was 1.68 ± 0.25 pA/pF (n = 17), somewhat larger than the picrotoxin-sensitive tonic current density of 0.85 ± 0.18 pA/pF (n = 25) determined in pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1F). Furthermore, furosemide (600 μM) also inhibited spontaneous current mediated by rat α1β3ϵ receptors (Fig. 7B). The density of current inhibited by furosemide was 1.11 ± 0.22 pA/pF (n = 9) (Fig. 7B). These data demonstrate that spontaneous currents mediated by rat α1β3ϵ receptors are sensitive to furosemide and in this way differ from tonic currents recorded from rodent pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1F).
Antagonist Sensitivities of Tonic Currents Mediated by Recombinant Rodent α1β1γ2 and α1β3γ2 GABAA Receptors. Recombinant GABAA receptors containing the β1 subunit expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes exhibit spontaneous current (Miko et al., 2004). Furthermore, hippocampal neurons cultured from embryonic rats express the β1 subunit (Mangan et al., 2005). Therefore, we examined whether α1β1γ2 GABAA receptors exhibited spontaneous gating when expressed in HEK293 cells. Because loreclezole elicited currents in pyramidal neurons (Fig. 5A), indicating the presence of receptors containing the β2 and/or the β3 subunit, we compared spontaneous currents mediated by α1β1γ2 receptors with those mediated by α1β3γ2 receptors. Picrotoxin (100 μM) inhibited small tonic currents when bath-applied to HEK293 cells expressing either α1β1γ2 or α1β3γ2 receptors (Fig. 7C). The picrotoxin-inhibited current densities were 0.53 ± 0.09 (n = 6) and 0.34 ± 0.09 pA/pF (n = 9), respectively, (Fig. 7G). The ratios of picrotoxin-inhibited current amplitudes to peak GABA (100 μM)-activated current amplitudes were 0.27 ± 0.11% and 0.13 ± 0.05% for α1β1γ2 and α1β3γ2 receptors, respectively. Furthermore, similar to our observations in pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1, B, C, and F), bicuculline (20 μM) inhibited spontaneous currents mediated by α1β1γ2 and α1β3γ2 receptors, whereas gabazine (20 μM) had no effect (Fig. 7, D and G). However, gabazine attenuated the inhibition of tonic current by bicuculline when coapplied to cells expressing α1β1γ2 or α1β3γ2 receptors, demonstrating that both antagonists bind to constitutively active GABAA receptors (Fig. 7D).
Flunitrazepam (1 μM) enhanced tonic currents when bath-applied to HEK293 cells expressing either α1β1γ2 or α1β3γ2 receptors (Fig. 7E), having a significantly greater effect in the latter compared with the former (p < 0.01). Flunitrazepam-elicited currents were -6 ± 1 pA (n = 6) and -22 ± 6 pA (n = 4), respectively. Loreclezole (10 μM) also activated significantly larger currents (p < 0.05) when applied to cells expressing α1β3γ2 receptors (-198 ± 93 pA, n = 6) compared with those expressing α1β1γ2 receptors (-4 ± 2 pA, n = 7) (Fig. 7F).
We also examined the effects of Zn2+ (100 μM) and furosemide (600 μM) on spontaneous currents mediated by α1β1γ2 or α1β3γ2 receptors. The former but not the latter inhibited spontaneous currents recorded from cells expressing either receptor combination (Fig. 7G). The pharmacological profiles of spontaneous currents mediated by recombinant α1β1γ2 and α1β3γ2 receptors (Fig. 7G) exhibit a striking similarity to those of tonic currents recorded from pyramidal neurons (Fig. 1F).
Discussion
We characterized the antagonist sensitivities of GABAA receptors in cultured neonatal hippocampal pyramidal neurons by recording four types of activity: 1) mIPSCs; 2) tonic inhibitory currents; 3) currents activated by exogenous GABA; and 4) currents activated by propofol. Picrotoxin and bicuculline inhibited all four types of activity. In contrast, gabazine inhibited mIPSCs and currents activated by exogenous GABA but had little effect on either tonic or propofol-activated currents. It is interesting that the pharmacological properties of tonic currents of pyramidal neurons were similar to tonic currents of HEK293 cells expressing α1β1γ2 or α1β3γ2 receptors but differed from those of α1β3ϵ receptors.
Our data support the idea that gabazine-resistant GABAA receptor activity mediates inhibitory tonic currents (Bai et al., 2001). However, because picrotoxin also inhibits glycine-activated currents (Thio and Zhang, 2006), we examined whether glycine receptors mediate tonic currents. This is unlikely because Zn2+, which inhibited tonic currents, enhances glycine-activated currents recorded from pyramidal neurons (Thio and Zhang, 2006). Furthermore, tonic currents were resistant to the glycine receptor antagonist strychnine. The sensitivity of tonic currents to bicuculline and picrotoxin, taken together with the similarity of the chord conductances of GABA-evoked and spontaneous channels in outside-out patches, supports the hypothesis that GABAA receptors mediate tonic currents. However, the only GABA receptors known to mediate GABA-evoked Cl- currents that are resistant to gabazine are composed of ρ subunits (Zhang et al., 2001). These receptors are also resistant to bicuculline, and therefore, the inhibition of tonic currents by bicuculline is inconsistent with the idea that ρ subunits mediate tonic current in pyramidal neurons.
Because gabazine abolishes mIPSCs and currents activated by exogenous GABA, tonic currents are not activated by GABA. How can the apparently contradictory observations that 1) GABAA receptors mediating tonic current are gabazine-resistant and 2) all GABA-evoked currents are inhibited by gabazine, be reconciled? We propose the following hypothesis: spontaneous GABAA receptor gating gives rise to gabazine-resistant tonic currents. GABAA receptor-mediated channels active in the absence of added GABA occur in outside-out patch recordings from pituitary intermediate lobe cells (Taleb et al., 1987) and in cell-attached patch recordings from hippocampal pyramidal neurons (Birnir et al., 2000) and hypothalamic neurons (Jones et al., 2006). We found that spontaneous channel activity in outside-out patches excised from pyramidal neurons were independent of GABA, persisted for prolonged time periods after patch excision, were resistant to gabazine, and were abolished by picrotoxin. GABA-activated channels recorded subsequently from the same patches had the same chord conductances as spontaneous events but were abolished by gabazine. These data support the hypothesis that spontaneously active GABAA receptors are gabazine-resistant.
Both gabazine and bicuculline competitively antagonize GABA binding to GABAA receptors (Straughan et al., 1971; Heaulme et al., 1986; Zhang et al., 2001). However, we propose that only bicuculline is able to significantly inhibit receptors that exhibit gating in the absence of GABA. Antagonists that are able to inhibit receptors that are active in the absence of agonist are said to have negative intrinsic efficacy and are therefore inverse agonists, terminology first developed to explain the actions of ligands that bind to the benzodiazepine site (Polc et al., 1982). We propose that bicuculline has negative intrinsic efficacy acting as an inverse agonist at the GABA binding site. In contrast, gabazine has negligible negative efficacy and is therefore a neutral competitive antagonist.
To compare the negative efficacies of bicuculline and gabazine, we activated GABAA receptors using propofol, an anesthetic that acts at a site distinct from that of GABA (Davies et al., 1997). In agreement with results from a previous study (Bieda and MacIver, 2004), gabazine was relatively ineffective as an inhibitor of propofol-activated currents. In contrast, bicuculline abolished propofol-activated currents. The fact that gabazine prevented the abolition of propofol-activated currents by bicuculline confirms that gabazine is indeed binding to the same site with negligible negative efficacy. Consistent with this hypothesis, gabazine also attenuates the inhibition by bicuculline of tonic currents recorded from pyramidal neurons (Bai et al., 2001).
The inability of gabazine to inhibit propofol-activated currents is not indicative of a selective ability of the anesthetic to activate tonic receptors as suggested previously (Bieda and MacIver, 2004). Instead, it is a consequence of the antagonist's lack of negative efficacy. Propofol-activated currents mediated by α1β3γ2 receptors were also resistant to inhibition by gabazine and abolished by bicuculline. Furthermore, gabazine prevented the inhibition of propofol-activated α1β3γ2 receptors by bicuculline. Again, these data support the hypothesis that gabazine has negligible negative efficacy, whereas bicuculline is an inverse agonist. Furthermore, these findings are in agreement with a previous study demonstrating negligible efficacy of gabazine as an inhibitor of recombinant receptors activated by the anesthetic steroid alphaxalone and pentobarbital (Ueno et al., 1997).
Neurosteroids also directly activate GABAA receptors, and, by analogy to alphaxalone, it is likely that this action is bicuculline-sensitive and gabazine-resistant (Ueno et al., 1997). Endogenous neurosteroids may participate in tonic GABAA receptor activity in vivo. However, it is unlikely that in cultured neurons undergoing continuous perfusion, neurosteroids reach concentrations sufficient for GABAA receptor activation. A role for neurosteroids in tonic single-channel activity observed in patches excised from pyramidal neurons is even less likely.
The discovery of constitutive activity of metabotropic receptors (Costa and Herz, 1989) led to the reclassification, as inverse agonists, of several drugs found to have negative intrinsic efficacy previously considered antagonists (Kenakin, 2004; Costa and Cotecchia, 2005). The occurrence of constitutive gating in ionotropic receptors may lead to a similar reclassification of ligands such as bicuculline, previously considered antagonists. Several cysteine-loop ionotropic receptors exhibit constitutive gating, such as nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in embryonic muscle (Jackson, 1984) and recombinant Zn2+-activated ion channels (Davies et al., 2003).
Recombinant studies revealed that the presence of the ϵ subunit causes the appearance of robust spontaneous gating of αxβxϵ and α1β3γ2ϵ GABAA receptors (Neelands et al., 1999; Davies et al., 2001; Maksay et al., 2003; Wagner et al., 2005). Furthermore, the β1 subunit also confers some spontaneous gating to both α2β1 and α2β1γ2 receptors (Miko et al., 2004). Spontaneously active GABAA receptors containing the ϵ subunit may participate in tonic current in GnRH-secreting hypothalamic neurons (Jones et al., 2006). However, the ϵ subunit does not seem to be responsible for spontaneous gating in hippocampal pyramidal neurons. Furosemide inhibited spontaneous currents mediated by recombinant rodent α1β3ϵ receptors, whereas tonic currents in pyramidal neurons were resistant to the compound. It is interesting that cultured embryonic hippocampal neurons exhibit furosemide-sensitive tonic currents (Mangan et al., 2005), raising the intriguing possibility that the ϵ subunit may play a developmental role in the spontaneous gating of GABAA receptors.
We examined the possibility that spontaneous gating could be conferred by the β1 subunit identified previously in hippocampal neurons using immunocytochemistry (Mangan et al., 2005). Because loreclezole activated currents when applied to pyramidal neurons, inferring the presence of β2 and/or β3 subunits, we compared the spontaneous gating of α1β1γ2 receptors to that of α1β3γ2 receptors expressed in HEK293 cells. Consistent with a previous report (Miko et al., 2004), spontaneous currents mediated by receptors containing the β1 subunit were larger than the those mediated by receptors containing the β3 subunit when normalized to the peak GABA-evoked current. Nevertheless both α1β1γ2 and α1β3γ2 receptors mediated detectable tonic currents with pharmacological properties similar to those of pyramidal neurons. It is significant that neither gabazine nor furosemide affected constitutive gating of α1β1γ2 or α1β3γ2 receptors. In contrast, picrotoxin and bicuculline inhibited spontaneous currents, and the actions of the latter were attenuated by gabazine. These data support our hypothesis that spontaneously active GABAA receptors mediate tonic currents in pyramidal neurons.
Benzodiazepines enhance tonic currents recorded from pyramidal neurons (Bai et al., 2001). Unlike general anesthetics and various hypnotic compounds including loreclezole (Whiting et al., 1999), benzodiazepines do not directly activate GABAA receptors (Schulz and Macdonald, 1981). Therefore, one of two mechanisms may account for increased tonic current: 1) enhanced affinity for ambient GABA; or 2) potentiation of spontaneous gating. Gabazine had no significant effect on the enhanced tonic current induced by flunitrazepam. Furthermore, in the absence of GABA, flunitrazepam also enhanced tonic currents mediated by recombinant GABAA receptors. Therefore, it is likely that flunitrazepam enhances spontaneous GABAA receptor gating. This may be a property common to anxiolytic benzodiazepines because diazepam also enhances bicuculline-sensitive spontaneous current mediated by α1β3γ2 receptors (Bianchi and Macdonald, 2001).
Spontaneous gating of recombinant GABAA receptors can be enhanced by introducing mutations in the transmembrane 2 domain (Chang et al., 1996; Thompson et al., 1999). In agreement with our findings using native and recombinant GABAA receptors, gabazine has a negligible efficacy relative to bicuculline as an inhibitor of spontaneously active GABAA receptors containing mutations that induce constitutive gating (Chang and Weiss, 1999; Thompson et al., 1999).
The existence of spontaneously active GABAA receptors explains the contrasting antagonist pharmacologies of tonic currents and currents activated by exogenous GABA in hippocampal pyramidal neurons. Although high-affinity extrasynaptic GABAA receptors activated by ambient GABA probably mediate tonic currents in some brain regions (Farrant and Nusser, 2005), our study demonstrates the need for consideration of additional mechanisms. Using bicuculline as an inverse agonist and gabazine as a neutral antagonist the presence of GABA-independent gating can now be quantified in different brain regions.
Footnotes
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This work was supported by grant GM058037 from the National Institutes of Health.
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ABBREVIATIONS: HEK, human embryonic kidney; mIPSC, miniature inhibitory postsynaptic current; TTX, tetrodotoxin; CNQX, 6-cyano-2,3-dihydroxy-7-nitroquinoxaline; AP5, 2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate; propofol, 2,6-diisopropylphenol; ANOVA, analysis of variance; SR95531, gabazine.
- Received July 6, 2006.
- Accepted November 7, 2006.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics