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Effects of agmatine on the electrical activity of subfomical organ neurons

Wang Zemin, Ji Shumei, Zhang Hao, Sun Guangqi, Wang Zhian, He Ruirong

Department of Physiology, Institute of Basic Medicine, Hebei Medical University. Shijiazhuang 050017, China

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of agmatine (Agm) on the electrical activity of neurons in subfornical organ (SFO) slices using extracellular recording technique. The results are as follows. (1) In response to the application of Agm (1.0 #mu#mol/L) into the superfusate for 2 min, the discharge rate of 24/28 (85.7%) subfomical neurons was decreased significantly, while the discharge rate of 4/28 (14.3%) neurons were not affected. (2) Pretreatment with L-glutamate (0.3 mmol/L) led to a marked increase in the discharge rate of 19/24 (79.2%)subfomical neurons in an epileptiform pattern and the activity of the remaining 5/24 (20.8%) neurons was unaffected. By application of Agm (1.0 #mu#mol/L) into the superfusate for 2 min, the epileptiform dicharge of 15/19 (78.9%) neurons was suppressed significantly, while that of the other 4 (21.1%) neurons was not inhibited.

Key words: Subfornical organ;Agmatine;L-glutamate;Bay K-8644;NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester

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Citing This Article：

Wang Zemin, Ji Shumei, Zhang Hao, Sun Guangqi, Wang Zhian, He Ruirong. Effects of agmatine on the electrical activity of subfomical organ neurons. Acta Physiol Sin 2004; 56 (4): (in Chinese with English abstract).