In most animal cells, hypotonic swelling is followed by a regulatory volume decrease (RVD) thought to prevent cell death. In contrast, goldfish hepatocytes challenged with hypotonic medium (180 mosM, HYPO) increase their volume 1.7 times but remain swollen and viable for at least 5 h. Incubation with ATP␥S (an ATP analog) in HYPO triggers a 42% volume decrease. This effect is concentration dependent (K1/2 ϭ 760 nM) and partially abolished by P2 receptor antagonists (64% inhibition). A similar induction of RVD is observed with ATP, UTP, and UDP, whereas adenosine inhibits RVD. Goldfish hepatocytes release more than 500 nM ATP during the first minutes of HYPO with no induction of RVD. The fact that similar concentrations of ATP␥S did trigger RVD could be explained by showing that ATP␥S induced ATP release. Finally, we observed that in a very small extracellular volume, hepatocytes do show a 56% RVD. This response was diminished by P2 receptor antagonists (73%) and increased (73%) when the extracellular ATP hydrolysis was inhibited 72%. Using a mathematical model, we predict that during the first 2 min of HYPO exposure the extracellular [ATP] is mainly governed by ATP diffusion and by both nonlytic and lytic ATP release, with almost no contribution from ecto-ATPase activity. We show that goldfish hepatocytes under standard HYPO (large volume) do not display RVD unless this is triggered by the addition of micromolar concentrations of nucleotides. However, under very low assay volumes, sufficient endogenous extracellular [ATP] can build up to induce RVD. extracellular ATP; water transport; ectonucleotidases MOST VERTEBRATE CELLS, when suddenly exposed to hypotonic conditions, rapidly swell due to the influx of water but subsequently, despite continuous osmotic perturbation, this swelling is opposed by the compensatory efflux of osmolytes and water. The resulting cell volume decrease is termed regulatory volume decrease, or RVD (20). RVD is mediated to a large extent by KCl loss through both K ϩ and Cl Ϫ channels, parallel activity of K ϩ -H ϩ and Cl Ϫ -HCO 3 Ϫ exchangers or KCl cotransporters (5, 21). However, little is known on the extracellular factors inducing RVD.In the past few years, a growing body of evidence has shown that extracellular nucleotides, mainly ATP, play a significant role in the control of cell volume regulation by binding to specific cell surface molecules termed "P" receptors (purinic and pyrimidinic receptors) (29). P1 receptors bind adenosine and other nucleosides, whereas P2 receptors bind mainly dinucleotides and trinucleotides. The P2 receptor family (8, 32, 36, 38) consists of two main subtypes, P2X and P2Y, representing ligand-gated cation channels and G protein-coupled receptors (linked to phospholipase C), respectively. At the cell membrane, the availability of agonists of P receptors is tightly regulated by specific membrane-bound enzymes located at the surface of the cell. These include E-NTPDases, a family of enzymes that hydrolyze nucleoside diphosphates and triphosphates, and also...

Development of inhibition onto pyramidal cells may be crucial for the emergence of cortical network activity, including gamma oscillations. In primate dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), inhibitory synaptogenesis starts in utero and inhibitory synapse density reaches adult levels before birth. However, in DLPFC, the expression levels of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) synapse-related gene products changes markedly during development until young adult age, suggesting a highly protracted maturation of GABA synapse function. Therefore, we examined the development of GABA synapses by recording GABAAR-mediated inhibitory postsynaptic currents (GABAAR-IPSCs) from pyramidal cells in the DLPFC of neonatal, prepubertal, peripubertal, and adult macaque monkeys. We found that the decay of GABAAR-IPSCs, possibly including those from parvalbumin-positive GABA neurons, shortened by prepubertal age, while their amplitude increased until the peripubertal period. Interestingly, both GABAAR-mediated quantal response size, estimated by miniature GABAAR-IPSCs, and the density of GABAAR synaptic appositions, measured with immunofluorescence microscopy, were stable with age. Simulations in a computational model network with constant GABA synapse density showed that the developmental changes in GABAAR-IPSC properties had a significant impact on oscillatory activity and predicted that, whereas DLPFC circuits can generate gamma frequency oscillations by prepubertal age, mature levels of gamma band power are attained at late stages of development.

Response properties in primary sensory cortices are highly dependent on behavioral state. For example, the nucleus basalis of the forebrain plays a critical role in enhancing response properties of excitatory neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) during active exploration and learning. Given the strong reciprocal connections between hierarchically arranged cortical regions, how are increases in sensory response gain constrained to prevent runaway excitation? To explore this, we used in vivo two-photon guided cell-attached recording in conjunction with spatially restricted optogenetic photo-inhibition of higher-order visual cortex in mice. We found that the principle feedback projection to V1 originating from the lateral medial area (LM) facilitated visual responses in layer 2/3 excitatory neurons by ϳ20%. This facilitation was reduced by half during basal forebrain activation due to differential response properties between LM and V1. Our results demonstrate that basal-forebrain-mediated increases in response gain are localized to V1 and are not propagated to LM and establish that subcortical modulation of visual cortex is regionally distinct.