Abstract
Astrocytes, the most abundant cell type in the brain, are non-excitable cells and play critical roles in brain function. Mature astrocytes typically exhibit a linear current–voltage relationship termed passive conductance, which is believed to enable astrocytes to maintain potassium homeostasis in the brain. We previously demonstrated that TWIK-1/TREK-1 heterodimeric channels mainly contribute to astrocytic passive conductance. However, the molecular identity of astrocytic passive conductance is still controversial and needs to be elucidated. Here, we report that spadin, an inhibitor of TREK-1, can dramatically reduce astrocytic passive conductance in brain slices. A series of gene silencing experiments demonstrated that spadin-sensitive currents are mediated by TWIK-1/TREK-1 heterodimeric channels in cultured astrocytes and hippocampal astrocytes from brain slices. Our study clearly showed that TWIK-1/TREK-1-heterodimeric channels can act as the main molecular machinery of astrocytic passive conductance, and suggested that spadin can be used as a specific inhibitor to control astrocytic passive conductance.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 9639 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-20 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | International journal of molecular sciences |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 24 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 Dec 2 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (NRF-2017R1A2B3012502 and NRF-2016M3C7A1904149) awarded to J.-Y.P., and (NRF-2020R1A2C2010650) awarded to E.M.H.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords
- Astrocyte
- Astrocytic passive conductance
- Spadin
- TWIK-1/TREK-1-heterodimeric channel
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Catalysis
- Molecular Biology
- Spectroscopy
- Computer Science Applications
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
- Organic Chemistry
- Inorganic Chemistry