AB144P Sigma-AldrichAnti-Choline Acetyltransferase Antibody

Active sensing involves the fusion of internally generated motor events with external sensation. For rodents, active somatosensation includes scanning the immediate environment with the mystacial vibrissae. In doing so, the vibrissae may touch an object at any angle in the whisk cycle. The representation of touch and vibrissa self-motion may in principle be encoded along separate pathways, or share a single pathway, from the periphery to cortex. Past studies established that the spike rates in neurons along the lemniscal pathway from receptors to cortex, which includes the principal trigeminal and ventral-posterior-medial thalamic nuclei, are substantially modulated by touch. In contrast, spike rates along the paralemniscal pathway, which includes the rostral spinal trigeminal interpolaris, posteromedial thalamic, and ventral zona incerta nuclei, are only weakly modulated by touch. Here we find that neurons along the lemniscal pathway robustly encode rhythmic whisking on a cycle-by-cycle basis, while encoding along the paralemniscal pathway is relatively poor. Thus, the representations of both touch and self-motion share one pathway. In fact, some individual neurons carry both signals, so that upstream neurons with a supralinear gain function could, in principle, demodulate these signals to recover the known decoding of touch as a function of vibrissa position in the whisk cycle.

Patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) often present with axial symptoms, including postural- and gait difficulties that respond poorly to dopaminergic agents. Although deep brain stimulation (DBS) of a highly heterogeneous brain structure, the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), improves such symptoms, the underlying neuronal substrate responsible for the clinical benefits remains largely unknown, thus hampering optimization of DBS interventions. Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)::Cre(+) transgenic rats were sham-lesioned or rendered parkinsonian through intranigral, unihemispheric stereotaxic administration of the ubiquitin-proteasomal system inhibitor, lactacystin, combined with designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADD), to activate the cholinergic neurons of the nucleus tegmenti pedunculopontine (PPTg), the rat equivalent of the human PPN. We have previously shown that the lactacystin rat model accurately reflects aspects of PD, including a partial loss of PPTg cholinergic neurons, similar to what is seen in the post-mortem brains of advanced PD patients.In this manuscript, we show that transient activation of the remaining PPTg cholinergic neurons in the lactacystin rat model of PD, via peripheral administration of the cognate DREADD ligand, clozapine-N-oxide (CNO), dramatically improved motor symptoms, as was assessed by behavioral tests that measured postural instability, gait, sensorimotor integration, forelimb akinesia and general motor activity. In vivo electrophysiological recordings revealed increased spiking activity of PPTg putative cholinergic neurons during CNO-induced activation. c-Fos expression in DREADD overexpressed ChAT-immunopositive (ChAT+) neurons of the PPTg was also increased by CNO administration, consistent with upregulated neuronal activation in this defined neuronal population.Overall, these findings provide evidence that functional modulation of PPN cholinergic neurons alleviates parkinsonian motor symptoms.

Rac1 is a critical regulator of cytoskeletal dynamics in multiple cell types. In the nervous system, it has been implicated in the control of cell proliferation, neuronal migration, and axon development.To systematically investigate the role of Rac1 in axon growth and guidance in the developing nervous system, we have examined the phenotypes associated with deleting Rac1 in the embryonic mouse forebrain, in cranial and spinal motor neurons, in cranial sensory and dorsal root ganglion neurons, and in the retina. We observe a widespread requirement for Rac1 in axon growth and guidance and a cell-autonomous defect in axon growth in Rac1 (-/-) motor neurons in culture. Neuronal death, presumably a secondary consequence of the axon growth and/or guidance defects, was observed in multiple locations. Following deletion of Rac1 in the forebrain, thalamocortical axons were misrouted inferiorly, with the majority projecting to the contralateral thalamus and a minority projecting ipsilaterally to the ventral cortex, a pattern of misrouting that is indistinguishable from the pattern previously observed in Frizzled3 (-/-) and Celsr3 (-/-) forebrains. In the limbs, motor-neuron-specific deletion of Rac1 produced a distinctive stalling of axons within the dorsal nerve of the hindlimb but a much milder loss of axons in the ventral hindlimb and forelimb nerves, a pattern that is virtually identical to the one previously observed in Frizzled3 (-/-) limbs.The similarities in axon growth and guidance phenotypes caused by Rac1, Frizzled3, and Celsr3 loss-of-function mutations suggest a mechanistic connection between tissue polarity/planar cell polarity signaling and Rac1-dependent cytoskeletal regulation.

Tissue fixation is critical for immunohistochemistry. Recently, we developed a zinc-ethanol-formalin fixative (ZEF), and the present study was aimed to assess the applicability of the ZEF for the human brain histology and immunohistochemistry and to evaluate the detectability of different antigens in the human brain fixed with ZEF. In total, 11 antigens were tested, including NeuN, neuron-specific enolase, GFAP, Iba-1, calbindin, calretinin, choline acetyltransferase, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), tyrosine hydroxylase, synaptophysin, and α-tubulin. The obtained data show that: i) the ZEF has potential for use in general histological practice, where detailed characterization of human brain morphology is needed; ii) the antigens tested are well-preserved in the human brain specimens fixed in the ZEF.

In all vertebrates the eyes are moved by six pairs of extraocular muscles enabling horizontal, vertical and rotatory movements. Recent work showed that each extraocular muscle is controlled by two motoneuronal groups: (1) Motoneurons of singly-innervated muscle fibers (SIF) that lie within the boundaries of motonuclei mediating a fast muscle contraction; and (2) motoneurons of multiply-innervated muscle fibers (MIF) in the periphery of motonuclei mediating a tonic muscle contraction. Currently only limited data about the transmitter inputs to the SIF and MIF motoneurons are available. Here we performed a quantitative study on the transmitter inputs to SIF and MIF motoneurons of individual muscles in the oculomotor and trochlear nucleus in monkey. Pre-labeled motoneurons were immunostained for GABA, glutamate decarboxylase, GABA-A receptor, glycine transporter 2, glycine receptor 1, and vesicular glutamate transporters 1 and 2. The main findings were: (1) the inhibitory control of SIF motoneurons for horizontal and vertical eye movements differs. Unlike in previous primate studies a considerable GABAergic input was found to all SIF motoneuronal groups, whereas a glycinergic input was confined to motoneurons of the medial rectus (MR) muscle mediating horizontal eye movements and to those of the levator palpebrae (LP) muscle elevating the upper eyelid. Whereas SIF and MIF motoneurons of individual eye muscles do not differ numerically in their GABAergic, glycinergic and vGlut2 input, vGlut1 containing terminals densely covered the supraoculomotor area (SOA) targeting MR MIF motoneurons. It is reasonable to assume that the vGlut1 input affects the near response system in the SOA, which houses the preganglionic neurons mediating pupillary constriction and accommodation and the MR MIF motoneurones involved in vergence.

Large cholinergic synaptic terminals known as C-boutons densely innervate the soma and proximal dendrites of motoneurons that are prone to neurodegeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Studies using the Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) mouse model of ALS have generated conflicting data regarding C-bouton alterations exhibited during ALS pathogenesis. In the present work, a longitudinal study combining immunohistochemistry, biochemical approaches and extra- and intra-cellular electrophysiological recordings revealed that the whole spinal cholinergic system is modified in the SOD1 mouse model of ALS compared to wild type (WT) mice as early as the second postnatal week. In WT motoneurons, both C-bouton terminals and associated M2 postsynaptic receptors presented a complex age-related dynamic that appeared completely disrupted in SOD1 motoneurons. Indeed, parallel to C-bouton morphological alterations, analysis of confocal images revealed a clustering process of M2 receptors during WT motoneuron development and maturation that was absent in SOD1 motoneurons. Our data demonstrated for the first time that the lamina X cholinergic interneurons, the neuronal source of C-boutons, are over-abundant in high lumbar segments in SOD1 mice and are subject to neurodegeneration in the SOD1 animal model. Finally, we showed that early C-bouton system alterations have no physiological impact on the cholinergic neuromodulation of newborn motoneurons. Altogether, these data suggest a complete reconfiguration of the spinal cholinergic system in SOD1 spinal networks that could be part of the compensatory mechanisms established during spinal development.

The developmental decrease of the intrinsic regenerative ability of the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) is associated with reduced activity of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) in mature neurons such as retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). While mTOR activity is further decreased upon axonal injury, maintenance of its pre-injury level, for instance by genetic deletion of the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), markedly promotes axon regeneration in mammals. The current study now addressed the question whether active mTOR might generally play a central role in axon regeneration by analyzing its requirement in regeneration-competent zebrafish. Remarkably, regulation of mTOR activity after optic nerve injury in zebrafish is fundamentally different compared to mammals. Hardly any activity was detected in naïve RGCs, whereas it was markedly increased upon axotomy in vivo as well as in dissociated cell cultures. After a short burst, mTOR activity was quickly attenuated, which is contrary to the requirements for axon regeneration in mammals. Surprisingly, mTOR activity was not essential for axonal growth per se, but correlated with cytokine- and PTEN inhibitor-induced neurite extension in vitro. Moreover, inhibition of mTOR using rapamycin significantly reduced axon regeneration in vivo and compromised functional recovery after optic nerve injury. Therefore, axotomy-induced mTOR activity is involved in CNS axon regeneration in zebrafish similar to mammals, although it plays an ancillary rather than essential role in this regeneration-competent species.

Various GABAergic neuron types of the amygdala cooperate to control principal cell firing during fear-related and other behaviors, and understanding their specialized roles is important. Among GABAergic neurons, the so-called intercalated cells (ITCcs) are critically involved in the expression and extinction of fear memory. Tightly clustered small-sized spiny neurons constitute the majority of ITCcs, but they are surrounded by sparse, larger neurons (L-ITCcs) for which very little information is known. We report here a detailed neurochemical, structural and physiological characterization of rat L-ITCcs, as identified with juxtacellular recording/labeling in vivo. We supplement these data with anatomical and neurochemical analyses of nonrecorded L-ITCcs. We demonstrate that L-ITCcs are GABAergic, and strongly express metabotropic glutamate receptor 1α and GABAA receptor α1 subunit, together with moderate levels of parvalbumin. Furthermore, L-ITCcs are innervated by fibers enriched with metabotropic glutamate receptors 7a and/or 8a. In contrast to small-sized spiny ITCcs, L-ITCcs possess thick, aspiny dendrites, have highly branched, long-range axonal projections, and innervate interneurons in the basolateral amygdaloid complex. The axons of L-ITCcs also project to distant brain areas, such as the perirhinal, entorhinal, and endopiriform cortices. In vivo recorded L-ITCcs are strongly activated by noxious stimuli, such as hindpaw pinches or electrical footshocks. Consistent with this, we observed synaptic contacts on L-ITCc dendrites from nociceptive intralaminar thalamic nuclei. We propose that, during salient sensory stimulation, L-ITCcs disinhibit local and distant principal neurons, acting as "hub cells," to orchestrate the activity of a distributed network.

Neurotransmitter corelease is emerging as a common theme of central neuromodulatory systems. Though corelease of glutamate or GABA with acetylcholine has been reported within the cholinergic system, the full extent is unknown. To explore synaptic signaling of cholinergic forebrain neurons, we activated choline acetyltransferase expressing neurons using channelrhodopsin while recording post-synaptic currents (PSCs) in layer 1 interneurons. Surprisingly, we observed PSCs mediated by GABAA receptors in addition to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Based on PSC latency and pharmacological sensitivity, our results suggest monosynaptic release of both GABA and ACh. Anatomical analysis showed that forebrain cholinergic neurons express the GABA synthetic enzyme Gad2 and the vesicular GABA transporter (Slc32a1). We confirmed the direct release of GABA by knocking out Slc32a1 from cholinergic neurons. Our results identify GABA as an overlooked fast neurotransmitter utilized throughout the forebrain cholinergic system. GABA/ACh corelease may have major implications for modulation of cortical function by cholinergic neurons.

Genetic tools that permit functional or connectomic analysis of neuronal circuits are rapidly transforming neuroscience. The key to deployment of such tools is selective transfection of target neurons, but to date this has largely been achieved using transgenic animals or viral vectors that transduce subpopulations of cells chosen according to anatomical rather than functional criteria. Here, we combine single-cell transfection with conventional electrophysiological recording techniques, resulting in three novel protocols that can be used for reliable delivery of conventional dyes or genetic material in vitro and in vivo. We report that techniques based on single cell electroporation yield reproducible transfection in vitro, and offer a simple, rapid and reliable alternative to established dye-labeling techniques in vivo, but are incompatible with targeted transfection in deep brain structures. In contrast, we show that intracellular electrophoresis of plasmid DNA transfects brainstem neurons recorded up to 9 mm deep in the anesthetized rat. The protocols presented here require minimal, if any, modification to recording hardware, take seconds to deploy, and yield high recovery rates in vitro (dye labeling: 89%, plasmid transfection: 49%) and in vivo (dye labeling: 66%, plasmid transfection: 27%). They offer improved simplicity compared to the juxtacellular labeling technique and for the first time offer genetic manipulation of functionally characterized neurons in previously inaccessible brain regions.