Neurons of the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus show a circadian rhythm in membrane properties that is lost during prolonged whole-cell recording

The suprachiasmatic nucleus is commonly considered to contain the main pacemaker of behavioral and hormonal circadian rhythms. Using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, the membrane properties of suprachiasmatic nucleus neurons were investigated in order to get more insight in membrane physiological mechanisms underlying the circadian rhythm in firing activity. Circadian rhythmicity could not be detected either in spontaneous firing rate or in other membrane properties when whole-cell measurements were made following an initial phase shortly after membrane rupture. However, this apparent lack of rhythmicity was not due to an unhealthy slice preparation or to seal formation, as a clear day/night difference in firing rate was found in cell-attached recordings. Furthermore, in a subsequent series of whole-cell recordings, membrane properties were assessed directly after membrane rupture, and in this series we did find a significant day/night difference in spontaneous firing rate, input resistance and frequency adaptation. As concerns the participation of different subpopulations of suprachiasmatic nucleus neurons expressing circadian rhythmicity, cluster I neurons exhibited strong rhythmicity, whereas no day/night differences were found in cluster II neurons. Vasopressin-containing cells form a subpopulation of cluster I neurons and showed a more pronounced circadian rhythmicity than the total population of cluster I neurons. In addition to their strong rhythm in spontaneous firing rate they also displayed a day/night difference in membrane potential.