Exploitable results
This project facilitated experiments studying how fast synaptic transmission mediated by the neurotransmitter glutamate is modulated by various presynaptic mechanisms. Electrical recording from postsynaptic cerebellar Purkinje neurones using whole-cell patch-clamping provides a method of measuring the response in the postsynaptic cell to release of glutamate from the presynaptic cell (parallel or climbing fibres), and thus of investigating the effect of agents which are suspected of modulating glutamate release from the presynaptic cell, such as adenosine. In addition, the equipment used allowed detection of changes of calcium concentration in the neurones: such calcium changes may trigger storage of information in the cerebellum by alteration of the strengths of synapses. Experiments showed that adenosine has a much greater effect on the strength of synaptic transmission at parallel fibre to climbing fibre synapses than at climbing fibre to Purkinje cell synapses, and that postsynaptic currents are briefer when reduced by adenosine possibly because glutamate is cleared from the synaptic cleft quicker when less of it is released. In addition, the presence of postsynaptic uptake carriers in Purkinje cells was shown to modulate the shape of the climbing fibre synaptic current.
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