Orchestration of “Presto” and “Largo” Synchrony in Up-Down Activity of Cortical Networks

It has been demonstrated using single-cell and multiunit electrophysiology in layer III entorhinal cortex and disinhibited hippocampal CA3 slices that the balancing of the up-down activity is characterized by both GABAA and GABAB mechanisms. Here we report novel results obtained using multi-electrode array (60 electrodes) simultaneous recordings from reverberating postnatal neocortical networks containing 19.2 ± 1.4% GABAergic neurons, typical of intact tissue. We observed that in each spontaneous active-state the total number of spikes in identified clusters of excitatory and inhibitory neurons is almost equal, thus suggesting a balanced average activity. Interestingly, in the active-state, the early phase is sustained by only 10% of the total spikes and the firing rate follows a sigmoidal regenerative mode up to peak at 35 ms with the number of excitatory spikes greater than inhibitory, therefore indicating an early unbalance. Concentration-response pharmacology of up- and down-state lifetimes in clusters of excitatory (n = 1067) and inhibitory (n = 305) cells suggests that, besides the GABAA and GABAB mechanisms, others such as GAT-1-mediated uptake, Ih, INaP and IM ion channel activity, robustly govern both up- and down-activity. Some drugs resulted to affect up- and/or down-states with different IC50s, providing evidence that various mechanisms are involved. These results should reinforce not only the role of synchrony in CNS networks, but also the recognized analogies between the Hodgkin–Huxley action potential and the population bursts as basic mechanisms for originating membrane excitability and CNS network synchronization, respectively

Pencil it in: pencil drawn electrochemical sensing platforms.

Inspired by recent reports concerning the utilisation of hand drawn pencil macroelectrodes (PDEs), we report the fabrication, characterisation (physicochemical and electrochemical) and implementation (electrochemical sensing) of various PDEs drawn upon a flexible polyester substrate. Electrochemical characterisation reveals that there are no quantifiable electrochemical responses upon utilising these PDEs with an electroactive analyte that requires an electrochemical oxidation step first, therefore the PDEs have been examined towards the electroactive redox probes hexaammineruthenium(iii) chloride, potassium ferricyanide and ammonium iron(ii) sulfate. For the first time, characterisation of the number of drawn pencil layers and the grade of pencil are examined; these parameters are commonly overlooked when utilising PDEs. It is demonstrated that a PDE drawn ten times with a 6B pencil presented the most advantageous electrochemical platform, in terms of electrochemical reversibility and peak height/analytical signal. In consideration of the aforementioned limitation, analytes requiring an electrochemical reduction as the first process were solely analysed. We demonstrate the beneficial electroanalytical capabilities of these PDEs towards p-benzoquinone and the simultaneous detection of heavy metals, namely lead(ii) and cadmium(ii), all of which are explored for the first time utilising PDEs. Initially, the detection limits of this system were higher than desired for electroanalytical platforms, however upon implementation of the PDEs in a back-to-back configuration (in which two PDEs are placed back-to-back sharing a single connection to the potentiostat), the detection limits for lead(ii) and cadmium(ii) correspond to 10 μg L(-1) and 98 μg L(-1) respectively within model aqueous (0.1 M HCl) solutions

Sex difference and intra-operative tidal volume: Insights from the LAS VEGAS study

BACKGROUND: One key element of lung-protective ventilation is the use of a low tidal volume (VT). A sex difference in use of low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) has been described in critically ill ICU patients.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether a sex difference in use of LTVV also exists in operating room patients, and if present what factors drive this difference.DESIGN, PATIENTS AND SETTING: This is a posthoc analysis of LAS VEGAS, a 1-week worldwide observational study in adults requiring intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery in 146 hospitals in 29 countries.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Women and men were compared with respect to use of LTVV, defined as VT of 8 ml kg-1 or less predicted bodyweight (PBW). A VT was deemed 'default' if the set VT was a round number. A mediation analysis assessed which factors may explain the sex difference in use of LTVV during intra-operative ventilation.RESULTS: This analysis includes 9864 patients, of whom 5425 (55%) were women. A default VT was often set, both in women and men; mode VT was 500 ml. Median [IQR] VT was higher in women than in men (8.6 [7.7 to 9.6] vs. 7.6 [6.8 to 8.4] ml kg-1 PBW, P < 0.001). Compared with men, women were twice as likely not to receive LTVV [68.8 vs. 36.0%; relative risk ratio 2.1 (95% CI 1.9 to 2.1), P < 0.001]. In the mediation analysis, patients' height and actual body weight (ABW) explained 81 and 18% of the sex difference in use of LTVV, respectively; it was not explained by the use of a default VT.CONCLUSION: In this worldwide cohort of patients receiving intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery, women received a higher VT than men during intra-operative ventilation. The risk for a female not to receive LTVV during surgery was double that of males. Height and ABW were the two mediators of the sex difference in use of LTVV.TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01601223

GABAergic circuits drive focal seizures

Epilepsy is based on abnormal neuronal activities that have historically been suggested to arise from an excess of excitation and a defect of inhibition, or in other words from an excessive glutamatergic drive not balanced by GABAergic activity. More recent data however indicate that GABAergic signaling is not defective at focal seizure onset and may even be actively involved in seizure generation by providing excitatory inputs. Recordings of interneurons revealed that they are active at seizure initiation and that their selective and time-controlled activation using optogenetics triggers seizures in a more general context of increased excitability. Moreover, GABAergic signaling appears to be mandatory at seizure onset in many models. The main pro-ictogenic effect of GABAergic signaling is the depolarizing action of GABAA conductance which may occur when an excessive GABAergic activity causes Cl− accumulation in neurons. This process may combine with background dysregulation of Cl−, well described in epileptic tissues. Cl− equilibrium is maintained by (Na+)/K+/Cl− co-transporters, which can be defective and therefore favor the depolarizing effects of GABA. In addition, these co-transporters further contribute to this effect as they mediate K+ outflow together with Cl− extrusion, a process that is responsible for K+ accumulation in the extracellular space and subsequent increase of local excitability. The role of GABAergic signaling in focal seizure generation is obvious but its complex dynamics and balance between GABAA flux polarity and local excitability still remain to be established, especially in epileptic tissues where receptors and ion regulators are disrupted and in which GABAergic signaling rather plays a 2 faces Janus role

Contrôle astroglial de la synchronisation neuronale

International audienc

Neuron-glia crosstalk revealed in reverberating networks by simultaneous extracellular recording of spikes and astrocytes' glutamate transporter and K+ currents

Astrocytes reuptake synaptically released glutamate with electrogenic transporters (GluT), and buffer the spike-dependent extracellular K(+) ([K(+)]o) excess with background K(+) channels. We studied neuronal spikes and the slower astrocytic signals on reverberating neocortical cultures and organotypic slices from mouse brains. Spike trains and glial responses were simultaneously captured from individual sites of multi-electrode arrays (MEA), by splitting the recorded traces into appropriate filters, and reconstructing the original signal by deconvolution. GluT currents were identified by using DL-threo-beta-benzyloxyaspartate (TBOA). K(+) currents were blocked by 30 µM Ba(2+), suggesting a major contribution of inwardly rectifying K(+) currents (Kir) Both types of current were tightly correlated with the spike rate, and their astrocytic origin was tested in primary cultures by blocking glial proliferation with cytosine β-d-arabinofuranoside (AraC). The spike-related, time-locked inward and outward K(+) currents in different regions of the astrocyte syncytium were consistent with the assumptions of the spatial K(+) buffering model. In organotypic slices from ventral tegmental area (VTA) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), the GluT current amplitudes exceeded those observed in primary cultures by several orders of magnitude, which allowed to directly measure transporter currents with a single electrode. Simultaneously measuring cell signals displaying widely different amplitudes and kinetics will help clarify the neuron-glia interplay, and make it possible to follow the cross-talk between different cell types in excitable as well as non-excitable tissue

Astroglial networks promote neuronal coordination

International audienc

Percepción del estrés, calidad de vida, hábitos higienico-dietéticos y actividad física en relación al estado nutricional en mujeres adultas

Fil: Alorda, Beatriz. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Escuela de Nutrición, Argentina.Fil: Algieri, Victoria. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Escuela de Nutrición, Argentina.Fil: Croci, Micaela. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Escuela de Nutrición, Argentina.Fil: Fernández Dossi, Silvina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Escuela de Nutrición, Argentina.Fil: Muñoz, María Agustina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Escuela de Nutrición, Argentina.Fil: Squillace, Celeste. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Escuela de Nutrición, Argentina.Fil: Torresani, María Elena. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Escuela de Nutrición, Argentina.Tanto la percepción del estrés, la calidad de vida y los hábitos higiénico-dietéticos, son factores importantes relacionados con el estado nutricional. Objetivo: Asociar la percepción del estrés, la calidad de vida, los hábitos higiénico-dietéticos y la actividad física según el estado nutricional en mujeres adultasPerception of stress, quality of life and dietary hygiene habits are related with nutritional status. Objective: Associate stress perception, quality of life, hygienic-dietary habits and physical activity according to nutritional status in adult women