Prieto et al. describe how ultrasound can either inhibit or potentiate action potential firing in hippocampal pyramidal neurons and demonstrate that these effects can be explained by increased potassium conductance.
ABSTRACTUltrasound can modulate action potential firing in vivo and in vitro, but the mechanistic basis of this phenomenon is not well understood. To address this problem, we used patch-clamp recording to quantify the effects of focused, high-frequency (43 MHz) ultrasound on evoked action potential firing in CA1 pyramidal neurons in acute rodent hippocampal brain slices. We find that ultrasound can either inhibit or potentiate firing in a spike-frequency-dependent manner: at low (nearthreshold) input currents and low firing frequencies, ultrasound inhibits firing, while at higher input currents and higher firing frequencies, ultrasound potentiates firing. The net result of these two competing effects is that ultrasound increases the threshold current for action potential firing, the slope of frequency-input curves, and the maximum firing frequency. In addition, ultrasound slightly hyperpolarizes the resting membrane potential, decreases action potential width, and increases the depth of the afterhyperpolarization. All of these results can be explained by the hypothesis that ultrasound activates a sustained potassium conductance. According to this hypothesis, increased outward potassium currents hyperpolarize the resting membrane potential and inhibit firing at near-threshold input currents, but potentiate firing in response to higher input currents by limiting inactivation of voltage-dependent sodium channels during the action potential. This latter effect is a consequence of faster action-potential repolarization, which limits inactivation of voltage-dependent sodium channels, and deeper (more negative) afterhyperpolarization, which increases the rate of recovery from inactivation. Based on these results we propose that ultrasound activates thermosensitive and mechanosensitive, voltage-insensitive two-poredomain potassium (K2P) channels, through heating or mechanical effects of acoustic radiation force. Finite-element modelling of the effects of ultrasound on brain tissue suggests that the effects of ultrasound on firing frequency are caused by a small (less than 2°C) increase in temperature, with possible additional contributions from mechanical effects.
93force produced by reflection of the acoustic wave at the interface between the solution and the air 94 above it (Duck, 1998)). The mound of fluid was then aligned in the x-y plane to the center of a 95 reticle in one eyepiece of the dissecting microscope, and, after adding additional ACSF and the 96 tissue sample to the chamber, the center of the reticle was aligned with the region of the tissue 97 targeted for patch-clamp recording. The ultrasound intensity (50 W/cm 2 ) is the spatial peak, pulse 98 average intensity for the free field. The interval between ultrasound applications was at least 12 99 seconds.
101Electrophysiology. Current clamp re...