Nitric oxide acts as a volume transmitter to modulate electrical properties of spontaneously firing neurons via apamin-sensitive potassium channels.

ABSTRACT: Nitric oxide (NO) is a radical and a gas, properties that allow NO to diffuse through membranes and potentially enable it to function as a "volume messenger." This study had two goals: first, to investigate the mechanisms by which NO functions as a modulator of neuronal excitability, and second, to compare NO effects produced by NO release from chemical NO donors with those elicited by physiological NO release from single neurons. We demonstrate that NO depolarizes the membrane potential of B5 neurons of the mollusk Helisoma trivolvis, initially increasing their firing rate and later causing neuronal silencing. Both effects of NO were mediated by inhibition of Ca-activated iberiotoxin- and apamin-sensitive K channels, but only inhibition of apamin-sensitive K channels fully mimicked all ef

SUBMITTER: Artinian L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6633990 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature