S. Haul et al., Impairment of neocortical long-term potentiation in mice deficient of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, J NEUROPHYS, 81(2), 1999, pp. 494-497
The role of the possible retrograde messenger nitric oxide (NO) in the indu
ction of long-term potentiation (LTP) was studied in supragranular layers o
f somatosensory cortical slices obtained from adult mice. High-frequency st
imulation produced a slowly rising, long-lasting (50 min) and significant (
P < 0.001) increase in the extracellular synaptic response by 23%. The indu
ction of LTP was independent from activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)
receptors, but prevented by bath application of N-G-nitro-L-arginine methy
l ester (L-NAME), indicating that one or several of the different NO syntha
ses (NOS) produced NO within the postsynaptic neuron. No LTP could be induc
ed in knockout mice lacking the endothelial NOS (eNOS) isoform. These data
suggest that eNOS is involved in an NMDA receptor-independent form of LTP i
n the rodent cerebral cortex.