Figure 2.
Activating TCRs decrease α7 nicotinic currents in layer 1 prefrontal cortical interneurons. A, C, Whole-cell recorded α7 nicotinic current traces elicited by the α7 specific agonist PHA543613 (PHA, 100 μm for 1 s) showed a significantly diminished α7 nicotinic current in brain slices from WT C57BL/6J mice treated with ConA (75 μg/ml for 30 min) (n = 10) compared with control treatment (n = 12) (p = 0.003, Wilcoxon rank sum test). Recordings were performed in the presence of TTX (200 nm) and CNQX (10 μm) to isolate nicotinic currents. B, C, No difference was observed in the amplitude of α7 nicotinic currents in brain slices of TCR β KO mice treated with ConA (n = 10) compared with control treatment (n = 10) (p = 0.7, Wilcoxon rank sum test). C, There was a significant increase in the mean baseline α7 nicotinic current amplitudes from neurons of TCR β subunit null mice compared with α7 nicotinic currents from neurons of WT mice (p = 0.02, Wilcoxon rank sum test).