Peripheral inflammation leads to a number of centrally mediated physiological and behavioral changes. The underlying mechanisms and the signaling pathways involved in these phenomena are not yet well understood. We hypothesized that peripheral inflammation leads to increased neuronal excitability arising from a CNS immune response. We induced inflammation in the gut by intracolonic administration of 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) to adult male rats. To examine the excitability of the brain in vivo, we administered pentylenetetrazole (PTZ; a GABAergic antagonist) intravenously to evoke clonic seizures. Rats treated with TNBS showed increased susceptibility to PTZ seizures that was strongly correlated with the severity and progression of intestinal inflammation. In vitro hippocampal slices from inflamed, TNBS-treated rats showed increased spontaneous interictal burst firing following application of 4-aminopyridine, indicating increased intrinsic excitability. The TNBS-treated rats exhibited a marked, reversible inflammatory response within the hippocampus, characterized by microglial activation and increases in tumor necrosis factor ␣ (TNF␣) levels. Central antagonism of TNF␣ using a monoclonal antibody or inhibition of microglial activation by i.c.v. injection of minocycline prevented the increase in seizure susceptibility. Moreover, i.c.v. infusion of TNF␣ in untreated rats for 4 days also increased seizure susceptibility and thus mimicked the changes in seizure threshold observed with intestinal inflammation. Our finding of a microglia-dependent TNF␣-mediated increase in CNS excitability provides insight into potential mechanisms underlying the disparate neurological and behavioral changes associated with chronic inflammation.4-aminopyridine ͉ cytokine ͉ pentylenetetrazole ͉ seizure ͉ colitis

ATP release from astrocytes contributes to calcium ([Ca(2+)]) wave propagation and may modulate neuronal excitability. In epithelial cells and hepatocytes, cell swelling causes ATP release, which leads to the activation of a volume-sensitive Cl(-) current (I(Cl,swell)) through an autocrine pathway involving purinergic receptors. Astrocyte swelling is counterbalanced by a regulatory volume decrease, involving efflux of metabolites and activation of I(Cl,swell) and K(+) currents. We used whole cell patch-clamp recordings in cultured astrocytes to investigate the autocrine role of ATP in the activation of I(Cl,swell) by hypo-osmotic solution (HOS). Apyrase, an ATP/ADP nucleotidase, inhibited HOS-activated I(Cl,swell), whereas ATP and the P2Y agonists, ADPbetaS and ADP, induced Cl(-) currents similar to I(Cl,swell). Neither the P2U agonist, UTP nor the P2X agonist, alpha,beta-methylene ATP, were effective. BzATP was less effective than ATP, suggesting that P2X7 receptors were not involved. P2 purinergic antagonists, suramin, RB2, and pyridoxalphosphate-6-azophenyl-2',4'-disulfonic acid (PPADS) reversibly inhibited activation of I(Cl,swell), suggesting that ATP-activated P2Y1 receptors. Thus ATP release mediates I(Cl,swell) in astrocytes through the activation of P2Y1-like receptors. The multidrug resistance protein (MRP) transport inhibitors probenicid, indomethacin, and MK-571 all potently inhibited I(Cl.swell). ATP release from astrocytes in HOS was observed directly using luciferin-luciferase and MK-571 reversibly depressed this HOS-induced ATP efflux. We conclude that ATP release via MRP and subsequent autocrine activation of purinergic receptors contributes to the activation of I(Cl,swell) in astrocytes by HOS-induced swelling.

Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are ubiquitous retrograde signaling molecules in the nervous system that are recruited in response to robust neuronal activity or the activation of postsynaptic G-protein-coupled receptors. Physiologically, eCBs have been implicated as important mediators of the stress axis and they may contribute to the rapid feedback inhibition of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) by circulating corticosteroids (CORTs). Understanding the relationship between stress and eCBs, however, is complicated by observations that eCB signaling is itself sensitive to stress. The mechanisms that link stress to changes in synaptic eCB signaling and the impact of these changes on CORT-mediated negative feedback have not been resolved. Here, we show that repetitive immobilization stress, in juvenile male rats, causes a functional downregulation of CB 1 receptors in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN). This loss of CB 1 receptor signaling, which requires the activation of genomic glucocorticoid receptors, impairs both activity and receptordependent eCB signaling at GABA and glutamate synapses on parvocellular neuroendocrine cells in PVN. Our results provide a plausible mechanism for how stress can lead to alterations in CORT-mediated negative feedback and may contribute to the development of plasticity of HPA responses.

Exposure to a stressor sensitizes or 'primes' the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to a subsequent novel stressor. The synaptic mechanisms underlying this priming, however, are not known. We found that exposing a rat to a single stressor primed glutamate synapses in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and allowed them to undergo a short-term potentiation (STP) following a burst of high-frequency afferent activity. This transient potentiation requires a corticotrophin-releasing hormone-dependent depression of postsynaptic NMDA receptors (NMDARs). The long-term depression of NMDAR function after stress prevented the vesicular release of an inhibitory retrograde messenger that, in control conditions, arrests STP. Following stress, STP manifested as an increase in the release probability of glutamate that was sufficient to induce multivesicular release. Our findings indicate that the priming of synapses to express STP is a synaptic correlate to stress-induced behavioral and neuroendocrine sensitization.

Physiological responses to hypoglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, or hyperglycemia include a critical adrenocortical component that is initiated by hypothalamic control of the anterior pituitary and adrenal cortex. These adrenocortical responses ensure appropriate long-term glucocorticoid-mediated modifications to metabolism. Despite the importance of these mechanisms to disease processes, how hypothalamic afferent pathways engage the intracellular mechanisms that initiate adrenocortical responses to glycemia-related challenges are unknown. This study explores these mechanisms using network- and cellular-level interventions in in vivo and ex vivo rat preparations. Results show that a hindbrain-originating catecholamine afferent system selectively engages a MAP kinase pathway in rat paraventricular hypothalamic CRH neuroendocrine neurons shortly after vascular insulin and 2-deoxyglucose challenges in vivo. In turn, this MAP kinase pathway can control both neuroendocrine neuronal firing rate and the state of CREB phosphorylation in a reduced ex vivo paraventricular hypothalamic preparation, making this signaling pathway an ideal candidate for coordinating CRH synthesis and release. These results establish the first clear structural and functional relationships linking neurons in known nutrient-sensing regions with intracellular mechanisms in hypothalamic CRH neuroendocrine neurons that initiate the adrenocortical response to various glycemia-related challenges.