Figure 3.

Microdissected thalamic nuclei from adjacent regions of a 280-μm-thick section produce dramatically different neurotransmitter profiles when analyzed by CE–MS. The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) contains purely GABAergic neurons, but the slice provides sufficient amounts of acetylcholine and glutamate in addition to GABA for MS detection. The dorsal thalamus (DT) contains predominantly glutamatergic neurons (such as those of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, which were patched in this study) but the slice contains abundant amounts of histamine, acetylcholine, GABA, serotonin, norepinephrine, as well as the nitric oxide precursor, argininosuccinate. Additional metabolites from these slices are listed in Table S2 in the Supporting Information.