Activity-dependent short-term enhancement of intercellular coupling

It was reported previously that repeated brief tetanization of the posterior eighth nerve can produce long-term homosynaptic potentiations of the electrotonic and chemical components of the mixed EPSP evoked in the Mauthner cell lateral dendrite by a single stimulus to the nerve. We show here that the same stimulus paradigm can lead, alternatively, to short-term enhancements of both excitatory responses. These transient modifications last for ~3 min, with a time course similar to post-tetanic potentiation at chemical synapses. However, a different stimulus pattern that transiently increases the presynaptic calcium concentration, paired-nerve stimuli, does not have any significant effect on electrotonic transmission, whereas it facilitates the chemically mediated EPSP. On the other hand, induction of the short-lasting potentiation of coupling, which depended on the discontinuous or burst-like property of the tetanizing paradigm, required NMDA-receptor activation and was blocked by postsynaptic intradendritic injections of the calcium chelator bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetra-acetic acid. The ineffectiveness of presynaptic calcium in potentiating electrotonic coupling likely reflects the involvement of a calcium-dependent regulatory protein in the postsynaptic cell and suggests that hemichannels on the two aides of a gap junction plaque can be modified independently. NMDA-mediated modulation of gap junctions could be widespread, because both types of channels coexist during development and in several mammalian adult central nervous system structures such as hippocampus.