Figure 1.

GABA_A currents and spontaneous synaptic traffic are selectively modulated by the cis-isomer of oleamide. (a) Superfusion of 20 μM cOA (black bar) to a neurone reversibly enhanced the effects of 4 s pulses of exogenous GABA at 3.2 μM (indicated by black dots and shown at higher resolution in the traces below). Note the slow onset kinetics and the concurrent reduction in the incidence (and graded reduction in amplitude) of spontaneous synaptic currents. (b) Identical experiment with tOA giving only a marginal response in contrast to the initial phases of cOA superfusion. (c) Histogram (mean+s.e.mean) depicting compounded data from replicated experiments with exogenous GABA (ns, not significant; ^**P<0.01). (d) Histograms (mean+s.e.mean) depicting steady-state effects of oleamide isomers on the incidence of spontaneous synaptic currents (event detection by Spike 2 software with a bin width of 2 min). ns, not significant; ^*P<0.05.