Referenced in: none

Automatically associated channels: Kir6.2

Title: Electrical and chemical excitability appear one week before birth in the embryonic rat spinal cord.

Authors: R N Mandler, A E Schaffner, E A Novotny, G D Lange, S V Smith, J L Barker

Journal, date & volume: Brain Res., 1990 Jul 2 , 522, 46-54

PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1699635

Abstract
Embryonic rat spinal cord cells were acutely dissociated with the enzyme papain, stained with a voltage-sensitive oxonol dye and incubated with various pharmacological agents. Changes in the fluorescence intensity and, by inference, membrane potential of the cells were analyzed in a flow cytometer. Veratridine caused depolarization of the cells in a TTX-sensitive manner from as early as embryonic day 13. Depolarizing responses to muscimol and kainate appeared slightly later, at embryonic days 14 and 15, and were blocked by the antagonists bicuculline and CNQX, respectively. Responses to veratridine and kainate did not occur in sodium-free medium. The emergence of these excitable membrane properties coincides with postmitotic differentiation and synaptic development in the embryonic spinal cord.