Objective: Resveratrol, a phytoalexin, has a wide range of desirable biological actions.
Despite a growing body of evidence indicating that resveratrol induces changes in neuronal
function, little effort, if any, has been made to investigate the cellular effect of resveratrol
treatment on intrinsic neuronal properties.
Materials and Methods: This experimental study was performed to examine the
acute effects of resveratrol (100 μM) on the intrinsic evoked responses of rat Cornu
Ammonis (CA1) pyramidal neurons in brain slices, using whole cell patch clamp recording
under current clamp conditions.
Results: Findings showed that resveratrol treatment caused dramatic changes in
evoked responses of pyramidal neurons. Its treatment induced a significant (P<0.05)
increase in the after hyperpolarization amplitude of the first evoked action potential.
Resveratrol-treated cells displayed a significantly broader action potential (AP) when
compared with either control or vehicle-treated groups. In addition, the mean instantaneous
firing frequency between the first two action potentials was significantly lower in
resveratrol-treated neurons. It also caused a significant reduction in the time to maximum
decay of AP. The rheobase current and the utilization time were both significantly
greater following resveratrol treatment. Neurons exhibited a significantly depolarized
voltage threshold when exposed to resveratrol.
Conclusion: Results provide direct electrophysiological evidence for the inhibitory
effects of resveratrol on pyramidal neurons, at least in part, by reducing the evoked
neural activity
