Abstract
Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule crucial for many physiological processes such as synaptic plasticity, vasomotricity, and inflammation. Neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) is the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of NO by neurons. In the juvenile and mature hippocampus and neocortex nNOS is primarily expressed by subpopulations of GABAergic interneurons. Over the past two decades, many advances have been achieved in the characterization of neocortical and hippocampal nNOS expressing neurons. In this review, we summarize past and present studies that have characterized the electrophysiological, morphological, molecular, and synaptic properties of these neurons. We also discuss recent studies that have shed light on the developmental origins and specification of GABAergic neurons with specific attention to neocortical and hippocampal nNOS expressing GABAergic neurons. Finally, we summarize the roles of NO and nNOS-expressing inhibitory neurons.
Highlights
Information processing within neocortical and hippocampal circuits relies upon complex interactions between glutamatergic excitatory projection neurons and GABAergic inhibitory neurons
GABAergic NEURONS EXPRESSING NEURONAL NITRIC OXIDE SYNTHASE IN THE JUVENILE OR MATURE HIPPOCAMPUS AND NEOCORTEX Using a combination of intracellular recoding, dye filling, single cell RT-PCR, nicotinamide adenine dinucleothide phosphate (NADPH)-diaphorase (NADPH-d) reactivity and immunostaining with various antibodies against calcium binding proteins, neuropeptides and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), several groups have shown that nNOS GABAergic neurons can be subdivided into several hippocampal and neocortical sub-populations that are summarized in Tables 1 and 2 and Figure 3
The development and plasticity of nNOS+ interneurons needs to be confronted with more general questions that are central to understand interneurons development and specification
Summary
Neuronal nitric oxide synthase expressing neurons: a journey from birth to neuronal circuits. Ludovic Tricoire, CNRS-UMR 7102, Laboratoire de Neurobiologie des Processus Adaptatifs, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France. Neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) is the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of NO by neurons. Over the past two decades, many advances have been achieved in the characterization of neocortical and hippocampal nNOS expressing neurons. We summarize past and present studies that have characterized the electrophysiological, morphological, molecular, and synaptic properties of these neurons. We discuss recent studies that have shed light on the developmental origins and specification of GABAergic neurons with specific attention to neocortical and hippocampal nNOS expressing GABAergic neurons. We summarize the roles of NO and nNOS-expressing inhibitory neurons
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