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. 2021 Aug 18;7:76. doi: 10.1038/s41531-021-00210-w

Fig. 5. D2 receptor antagonism in dopaminergic neurons mimics burst firing pattern with a significantly higher firing frequency observed in α-synuclein-overexpressing dopamine neurons that presents with lower membrane/cytoplasmic D2 ratio.

Fig. 5

a, b Representative whole-cell current-clamp recordings of spontaneously active naive (a, top, black) and α-syn-overexpressing (b, top pink) dopaminergic neurons during sulpiride (D2 antagonist, 5 μM) bath application. a, b (Bottom) Distribution of raw ISIs in naive (a, bottom) and α-syn-overexpressing (b, bottom) dopaminergic neurons (Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, D = 0.13114, p < 0.001). ce The bar graph shows firing frequency (c), interspike interval (ISI) (d), and firing regularity (e) during bath application of sulpiride (5 μM), revealing D2 antagonism in naive dopaminergic neurons promotes firing rates, interspike intervals, and regularity comparable to neurons overexpressing α-syn (n = 8 from three independent biological replicates, two-tailed unpaired t test, firing frequency: 100 ± 22.94 naive vs. 158.8 ± 30.37 α-syn-overexpressing neurons, p = 0.148; ISI: 100 ± 14.51 naive vs. 68.15 ± 11.84 α-syn-overexpressing neurons, p = 0.1147; CV of ISI: 100 ± 17.02 naive vs. 85.94 ± 6.599 α-syn-overexpressing neurons, p = 0.456).