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Opioid-Mediated Astrocyte–Neuron Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens

Major hallmarks of astrocyte physiology are the elevation of intracellular calcium in response to neurotransmitters and the release of neuroactive substances (gliotransmitters) that modulate neuronal activity. While μ-opioid receptor expression has been identified in astrocytes of the nucleus accumb...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Corkrum, Michelle, Rothwell, Patrick E., Thomas, Mark J., Kofuji, Paulo, Araque, Alfonso
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6628279/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31207909
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells8060586
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author Corkrum, Michelle
Rothwell, Patrick E.
Thomas, Mark J.
Kofuji, Paulo
Araque, Alfonso
author_facet Corkrum, Michelle
Rothwell, Patrick E.
Thomas, Mark J.
Kofuji, Paulo
Araque, Alfonso
author_sort Corkrum, Michelle
collection PubMed
description Major hallmarks of astrocyte physiology are the elevation of intracellular calcium in response to neurotransmitters and the release of neuroactive substances (gliotransmitters) that modulate neuronal activity. While μ-opioid receptor expression has been identified in astrocytes of the nucleus accumbens, the functional consequences on astrocyte–neuron communication remains largely unknown. The present study has investigated the astrocyte responsiveness to μ-opioid signaling and the regulation of gliotransmission in the nucleus accumbens. Through the combination of calcium imaging and whole-cell patch clamp electrophysiology in brain slices, we have found that μ-opioid receptor activation in astrocytes elevates astrocyte cytoplasmic calcium and stimulates the release of the gliotransmitter glutamate, which evokes slow inward currents through the activation of neuronal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. These results indicate the existence of molecular mechanisms underlying opioid-mediated astrocyte–neuron signaling in the nucleus accumbens.
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spelling pubmed-66282792019-07-23 Opioid-Mediated Astrocyte–Neuron Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens Corkrum, Michelle Rothwell, Patrick E. Thomas, Mark J. Kofuji, Paulo Araque, Alfonso Cells Article Major hallmarks of astrocyte physiology are the elevation of intracellular calcium in response to neurotransmitters and the release of neuroactive substances (gliotransmitters) that modulate neuronal activity. While μ-opioid receptor expression has been identified in astrocytes of the nucleus accumbens, the functional consequences on astrocyte–neuron communication remains largely unknown. The present study has investigated the astrocyte responsiveness to μ-opioid signaling and the regulation of gliotransmission in the nucleus accumbens. Through the combination of calcium imaging and whole-cell patch clamp electrophysiology in brain slices, we have found that μ-opioid receptor activation in astrocytes elevates astrocyte cytoplasmic calcium and stimulates the release of the gliotransmitter glutamate, which evokes slow inward currents through the activation of neuronal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. These results indicate the existence of molecular mechanisms underlying opioid-mediated astrocyte–neuron signaling in the nucleus accumbens. MDPI 2019-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6628279/ /pubmed/31207909 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells8060586 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Corkrum, Michelle
Rothwell, Patrick E.
Thomas, Mark J.
Kofuji, Paulo
Araque, Alfonso
Opioid-Mediated Astrocyte–Neuron Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens
title Opioid-Mediated Astrocyte–Neuron Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens
title_full Opioid-Mediated Astrocyte–Neuron Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens
title_fullStr Opioid-Mediated Astrocyte–Neuron Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens
title_full_unstemmed Opioid-Mediated Astrocyte–Neuron Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens
title_short Opioid-Mediated Astrocyte–Neuron Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens
title_sort opioid-mediated astrocyte–neuron signaling in the nucleus accumbens
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6628279/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31207909
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells8060586
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