Immunoglobulins from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients enhance the frequency of glycine-mediated spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents in rat hypoglossal motoneurons

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating, still incurable neurological disorder affecting upper and lower motoneurons. Passive transfer of the disease occurs when immunoglobulins from ALS patients are injected into experimental animals. It is suggested that ALS IgGs cause excitotoxicity by acting on voltage-gated Ca2+ channels. We reported previously that ALS IgGs increase spontaneous release of glutamate in hippocampal neurons. Since these cells are not normally affected in ALS, we here studied the effect of ALS IgGs on hypoglossal motoneurons in rat brain-stem slices. The frequency of spontaneous glycine-mediated inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) was augmented, but not that of miniature ones (mIPSCs), thus pointing to an indirect effect on release. Amiotrofna lateralna skleroza (ALS) je razarajuca, jos uvek neizleciva neuroloska bolest koja pogadja i gornje i donje motoneurone. Pasivni transfer oboljenja nastaje prenosom imunoglobulina ALS pacijenata u krvotok eksperimentalne zivotinje. Smatra seda ALS IgG izazivaju ekscitotoksicnost dejstvom na voltazno-zavisne Ca2+ kanale. Nasa ranija istrazivanja pokazala suda ALS IgG povecavaju spontano oslobadjanje glutamata u hipokampalnim neuronima. Kako je cinjenica da ove celije nisu normalno ostecene u ALS Ovde smo istrazili efekat ALS IgG na hipoglosalne motoneurone mozdanog stabla pacova. Konstatovali smo da je doslo do povecanja frekvencije spontanih glicinom izazvanih IPSC, ali ne i minijaturnih IPSC, sto je ukazivalo na indirektni efekat.