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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Neuropharmacology. 2014 May 24;85:263–283. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2014.05.010

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Developmental- and nicotine-induced effects on the amplitude of the Ih current present in LDT neurons. (A) Whole-cell, voltage clamp recordings showing the Ih current (apparent at #) elicited by a hyperpolarization to −110 mV for 500 ms in a cholinergic LDT neuron from group I (left panel) and group II (right panel) indicating a larger Ih current from the group II cell when compared to the Ih current from the group I cell. (B) Histogram showing the mean Ih current amplitude for LDT neurons in response to hyperpolarizations to −100 mV and −110 mV for a population of cells in group I and group II. Significantly larger Ih current amplitudes were found in group II as compared to group I for both hyperpolarization steps. (C) The larger Ih current amplitude of group II cells compared to group I was confirmed in a population of identified cholinergic LDT neurons for both hyperpolarizations to −100 mV and −110 mV as shown in the histogram. (D) Nicotine decreased the Ih current, which makes a partial recovery following washout as shown by this representative voltage clamp recording of a cholinergic LDT neuron showing the Ih current elicited by a hyperpolarization to −110 mV for 500 ms before, in the presence of 500 nM nicotine and following a 10 minute washout period. (E) The mean Ih current amplitudes from the population of group I and group II LDT neurons in response to hyperpolarizations to −100 mV and −110 mV before and in the presence of 500nM nicotine are shown in a histogram. Although nicotine significantly decreased the Ih current amplitudes for both hyperpolarization steps across both age groups there was no significant difference between the two age groups in this reduction. (F) Histogram showing the percentage decreases of the Ih current amplitude by 500 nM nicotine for hyperpolarizations to −100 mV and −110 mV in group I and group II indicating that nicotine decreases the Ih current amplitude similarly in the two age groups examined.