Astrocytes in culture display large cytosolic calcium increases upon stimulation with dopamine, however the mechanism and physiological significance of this calcium response is still unknown. In this thesis, I demonstrate that hippocampal astrocytes in situ respond to dopamine with similar large calcium transients. I also describe a novel astrocyte calcium decrease, which appears specific to dopaminergic stimulation. Dopamine is a potent neuromodulator of hippocampal synaptic activity, as are astrocytes. However, I found no evidence to suggest that dopamine-induced calcium transients in astrocytes affect excitatory synaptic transmission and its short-term plasticity in the hippocampal stratum radiatum. In perforant path - CA1 pyramidal synapses of stratum lacunosum-moleculare, astrocytes were found to lessen the inhibitory effect of dopamine on evoked PTP. This work shows for the first time that astrocytes in situ can robustly respond to dopamine with a complex Ca2+ signal thus may participate in dopaminergic signalling in the brain.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:632074 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Jennings, A. E. |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1451904/ |
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