Fig. 1.

Intrinsic electrophysiological properties of stellate cells and loss of these properties with the h-current blocker ZD7288. (a) Photomicrographs display a representative cell's anatomical location within the slice (left) as well as the typical stellate cell morphology (right). All data shown in b–d were recorded from this cell. (b1) This panel shows representative examples of electrophysiological properties of stellate cells including sMPOs (left) and spike clustering behavior (marked by asterisks on right). (b2) Bath application of ZD7288 consistently causes a gradual hyperpolarization in membrane potential (note holding potential is at 0 pA; #, spontaneous spike truncated). (b3) In ZD7288, spiking behavior shows cyclical transitions of low frequency spiking and inactivity after drug wash. The inset in b3 shows that sMPOs are lost compared to inset in b1. (c) Voltage sag and rebound spiking are abolished by drug wash (compare black and gray responses). (d) Following drug application, resonant frequency changes, in this particular cell, from 7.97 Hz (d1, black) to 0.53 Hz (d2, gray).