Whilst astrocytes in culture invariably respond to dopamine with cytosolic Ca2+ rises, the dopamine sensitivity of astroglia in situ and its physiological roles remain unknown. To minimize effects of experimental manipulations on astroglial physiology, here we monitored Ca2+ in cells connected via gap junctions to astrocytes loaded whole‐cell with cytosolic indicators in area CA1 of acute hippocampal slices. Aiming at high sensitivity of [Ca2+] measurements, we also employed life‐time imaging of the Ca2+ indicator Oregon Green BAPTA‐1. We found that dopamine triggered a dose‐dependent, bidirectional Ca2+ response in stratum radiatum astroglia, a jagged elevation accompanied and followed by below‐baseline decreases. The elevation depended on D1/D2 receptors and engaged intracellular Ca2+ storage and removal whereas the dopamine‐induced [Ca2+] decrease involved D2 receptors only and was sensitive to Ca2+ channel blockade. In contrast, the stratum lacunosum moleculare astroglia generated higher‐threshold dopamine‐induced Ca2+ responses which did not depend on dopamine receptors and were uncoupled from the prominent inhibitory action of dopamine on local perforant path synapses. Our findings thus suggest that a single neurotransmitter—dopamine—could either elevate or decrease astrocyte [Ca2+] depending on the receptors involved, that such actions are specific to the regional neural circuitry and that they may be causally uncoupled from dopamine actions on local synapses. The results also indicate that [Ca2+] elevations commonly detected in astroglia can represent the variety of distinct mechanisms acting on the microscopic scale. GLIA 2017;65:447–459

Neuronal N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) play a critical role in synaptic plasticity. Their activation requires not only binding of their ligand glutamate and membrane depolarization but also the presence of a co-agonist, glycine or D-serine. An increasing body of experimental evidence suggests that different populations of NMDARs could be gated by different co-agonists. Here we discuss how the spatial distribution of co-agonist sources and uptake mechanisms, together with diffusional properties of the synaptic environment, could shape NMDAR co-agonist supply and therefore NMDAR-dependent plasticity.

The key roles played by the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) in plasticity and cognition underscore this membrane protein as a relevant target to develop cognitive-enhancing drugs. However, NCAM is a structurally and functionally complex molecule with multiple domains engaged in a variety of actions, which raise the question as to which NCAM fragment should be targeted. Synthetic NCAM mimetic peptides that mimic NCAM sequences relevant to specific interactions allow identification of the most promising targets within NCAM. Recently, a decapeptide ligand of NCAM—plannexin, which mimics a homophilic trans-binding site in Ig2 and binds to Ig3—was developed as a tool for studying NCAM's trans-interactions. In this study, we investigated plannexin's ability to affect neural plasticity and memory formation. We found that plannexin facilitates neurite outgrowth in primary hippocampal neuronal cultures and improves spatial learning in rats, both under basal conditions and under conditions involving a deficit in a key plasticity-promoting posttranslational modification of NCAM, its polysialylation. We also found that plannexin enhances excitatory synaptic transmission in hippocampal area CA1, where it also increases the number of mushroom spines and the synaptic expression of the AMPAR subunits GluA1 and GluA2. Altogether, these findings provide compelling evidence that plannexin is an important facilitator of synaptic functional, structural and molecular plasticity in the hippocampal CA1 region, highlighting the fragment in NCAM's Ig3 module where plannexin binds as a novel target for the development of cognition-enhancing drugs.