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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biol Psychiatry. 2011 Apr 3;69(11):1091–1099. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.02.004

Figure 3.

Figure 3

NPY prevents and reverses ethanol-induced increases in GABAergic transmission via presynaptic release. A: In CeA neurons from alcohol-naïve rats, acute ethanol increases GABAergic transmission in CeA neurons, and subsequent NPY reverses this effect. Top Panel: Representative evoked IPSPs in a CeA neuron. Bottom Panel: In CeA neurons, ethanol alone (n=9) significantly (p<0.05) increases mean IPSP amplitudes to 136% of control (at stimulus intensity = ½ maximal IPSP amplitude). NPY in the presence of ethanol abolishes the ethanol-induced facilitation of evoked IPSP amplitude. B: Top Panel: Representative evoked IPSPs in a CeA neuron from an alcohol-dependent rat. Bottom Panel: Ethanol alone (n=10) increases mean IPSP amplitudes to 145% of control. Subsequent NPY reverses this ethanol effect. C: Ethanol significantly reduces the mean PPF ratio (at 50 msec interval) of IPSPs in CeA of naïve and chronic vapor-exposed rats (p<0.05) suggesting increased GABA release (i.e., changes in PPF ratio are inversely related to transmitter release). NPY completely blocks this ethanol effect on PPF, (p>0.05 relative to baseline), with recovery on washout. Note that baseline PPF in chronic vapor-exposed rats is significantly (# p<0.05) lower than baseline PPF in alcohol-naïve rats, (p<0.05). D: NPY slightly decreases basal GABAergic transmission in CeA and blocks ethanol-induced enhancement of IPSPs. Top panel: Evoked IPSPs in a CeA neuron from a naïve rat. Bottom panel: In CeA neurons, NPY alone (n=8) decreases the mean amplitudes of evoked IPSPs to 90% of control and prevents the enhancement of IPSPs induced by subsequent ethanol (compare to panel A). E: Top panel: Representative evoked IPSPs in a CeA neuron from an alcohol -dependent rat. Bottom panel: NPY alone (n=7) decreases the mean IPSP amplitudes to ~85% of control and prevents the enhancement of IPSPs induced by subsequent ethanol (compare to panel B). F: NPY does not significantly affect the 50-ms PPF ratio (p>0.05) relative to baseline. Ethanol added to NPY does not affect the 50-ms PPF ratio (p>0.05) relative to baseline. Note that baseline PPF in alcohol-dependent rats is significantly (# p< 0.05) lower than PPF in alcohol-naïve rats.