Department of Biological Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung City 804, Taiwan
* Author for correspondence (e-mail: netliou{at}mail.nsysu.edu.tw)
Accepted 12 February 2004
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Summary |
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Key words: Retinoic acid, Non-genomic, Transmitter release, Neuromuscular junction, Development
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Introduction |
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The cellular effects of RA are elicited by changes in gene expression as an outcome of the interactions of RA with its cellular binding proteins and retinoid nuclear receptors. The retinoid receptors include the retinoic acid receptors (RAR) and the retinoid X receptors (RXR), which belong to the steroid-thyroid-retinoid hormone receptor superfamily and are the transducers of the RA signal at the level of the genome (Chambon, 1994; Kastner et al., 1997
). Both receptor types comprise three subtypes (RAR
, ß,
and RXR
, ß,
) encoded by different genes and displaying distinct patterns of expression (De luca, 1991
). These receptors belong to the steroid/thyroid hormone nuclear receptor superfamily with RAR forming heterodimers with RXR whereas RXR, either as a homodimer or by forming heterodimers with orphan receptors, acts as a transcription factor. These transcription factors bind to retinoid response elements in the promoters of target genes and activate gene expression (the so-called `genomic' effect) in the presence of ligands (Mangelsdorf and Evans, 1995
). In addition to being considered a morphogenetic molecule with long-term effects, RA is now also thought to be a rapid neuromodulator. For example, it has been suggested that RA rapidly regulates potassium channel currents in human lymphocytes and uncouples gap junctions at electrical synapses of cultured retinal horizontal cells (Sidell and Schlichter, 1986
; Zhang and McMahon, 2000
).
The activity of neuromuscular transmission at developing synapses is crucial in synaptic maturation and competition, as well as in the differentiation of postsynaptic properties (Kidokoro and Saito, 1988; Lo and Poo, 1991
; Balice-Gordon and Lichtman, 1993
). Although all the evidence to date supports the notion that RA is essential for neuronal growth and differentiation, the role of RA in synaptic activity is not understood. It is known that RA receptors are present in developing motoneurons and high levels of RA have been detected in the embryo, particularly in the spinal cord (Wagner et al., 1990
; Horton and Maden, 1995
). Here we examine the acute effect of RA on synaptic transmission in cultured Xenopus nerve muscle-a simple and easily accessible model-providing insight into related mechanisms. Cultures derived from Xenopus embryos offer several advantages in studying the early events of synaptogenesis. First, previous studies of neuromuscular synapses in Xenopus cell cultures provide detailed descriptions of the morphological and physiological events associated with the timing of development. Second, Xenopus myoblasts do not fuse to form polynucleated myotubes in culture but remain mono-nucleated as long as they survive, providing good conditions for whole-cell patch-clamp recording. Third, the cells remain viable for many hours in the open air at room temperature on the microscope stage, which is ideal for electrophysiological recordings (Tabti and Poo, 1991
). Because the activity of neuromuscular transmission at developing synapses is crucial in synapse formation and RA is present in the Xenopus embryo, this study explores the roles of RA in synaptic activity during motoneuron development. Results from this study demonstrate that through activation of RARß, RA induces a rapid, non-genomic enhancement in the frequency of spontaneous transmitter secretion at the developing neuromuscular synapses.
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Materials and Methods |
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Electrophysiology and data analysis
The whole-cell recording and excised membrane patch-clamp methods followed those described previously (Hamill et al., 1981). Patch pipettes (Hilgenberg) were dragged with a two-stage electrode puller (PP-830, Narishige), and the tips were polished immediately before the experiment using a microforge (MF-830, Narishige). Spontaneous synaptic currents (SSCs) were detected from innervated myocytes by whole-cell recording in the voltage-clamp mode. Recordings were made at room temperature in Ringer's solution, and the solution inside the recording pipette contained 150 mM KCl, 1 mM NaCl, 1 mM MgCl2 and 10 mM HEPES (pH 7.2). Evoked synaptic currents (ESCs) were elicited by stimulating presynaptic neurons at the soma with a heat-polished glass microelectrode (tip opening
1-2 µm) filled with Ringer's solution. For supra-threshold stimulation of the neuron, a square current pulse of 0.3 milliseconds in duration and
2-8 µA in amplitude was applied through the pipette. Such currents generally induce twitch contraction of the muscle cell when they are applied to the soma of the innervating neuron. Data were collected using a patch-clamp amplifier WPC-100 (E.S.F. Electronic) and pClamp 8.0 (Axon). Signals were filtered at 10 KHz (Digidata 1322, Axon). Spontaneous synaptic currents were detected and analyzed using the Mini Analysis Program version 5.0 (Synaptosoft). To measure the changes in neurotransmitter release quantitatively, a time course of SSC frequency was first constructed on a minute-to-minute basis. The SSC frequencies for a 6-minute period right before drug application was averaged as a control. The changes in SSC frequency were measured by averaging a 6-minute period recording starting from the highest number after drug application (Liou et al., 2003
), and the results were expressed as mean±s.e.m. The statistical significance was evaluated by Student's paired t-test. For comparison of SSC amplitude distribution, the composite graph of cumulative frequency of all SSC events was constructed, and only synapses with a total number of events exceeding 180 were used for analysis. The statistical difference between these graphs was tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.
Chemicals
All-trans retinoic acid, AM-580, retinol, anisomycin and cycloheximide were obtained from Sigma. CIRD Galderma (Sophia-Antipolis, France) synthesized the following receptor agonists: CD367 (RAR panagonist), CD2314 (activates RARß), CD666 (activates RAR) and CD3640 (RXR panagonist). All retinoic acid and synthetic derivatives were dissolved as a 100 mM stock in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and then diluted into working concentrations with Ringer's solution just prior to use. The maximal final DMSO concentration was less than 0.03%. All drugs were applied directly to the culture media at the times indicated.
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Results |
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The increase in frequency of SSC events after RA treatment could be due either to an increase in presynaptic release of neurotransmitter or to greater postsynaptic sensitivity to the neurotransmitter. Increased postsynaptic ACh sensitivity could explain the increase in the SSC frequency, because previously undetectable small ACh quanta may emerge after exposure to the neurotransmitter. As shown in Fig. 1C, we found no detectable change in the distribution of the SSC amplitude (P>0.05, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test), suggesting that it is unlikely that ACh sensitivity was increased. The absence of any change in the rise time and the decay time of the SSC events after significant elevation of SSC frequency had occurred suggests that these factors did not affect the properties of postsynaptic ACh channels (Table 1). Thus, the primary action of RA at these synapses seems to be a presynaptic modulation of transmitter secretion mechanisms.
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We examined the effects of RA on impulse-evoked synaptic currents (ESCs) by stimulating presynaptic neurons at the cell body with a microelectrode to fire action potentials. Postsynaptic recordings of ESCs were made at different times before and after addition of RA. An example of one recording is shown in Fig. 1B. We found that application of RA significantly increased the amplitude of ESCs. The average ESC amplitudes before and 10-16 minutes after RA application were 4.9±0.3 nA and 6.2±0.2 nA (n=4, P<0.05, Student's t-test), respectively. Because no change was observed for the amplitude of SSCs (Fig. 1C), the increase in ESC amplitude is likely to result from an increased depolarization-evoked ACh release from the presynaptic nerve terminal, rather than increased postsynaptic responsiveness.
Specificity of RA action
As RA treatment resulted in an increase in SSC frequency, we then investigated the specificity of RA action. RA is a fat-soluble substance that is structurally related to vitamin A (all-trans retinol) and susceptible to light-induced decomposition. We first investigated if RA itself, and not the products of its chemical metabolites (for example 5,6-epoxyretinoic acid and retinoyl-ß-glucuronide), was responsible for the facilitation of spontaneous transmitter release. To approach this problem, we destroyed RA by exposing a 10-µM solution to strong light (100-W fiber-optic light source) overnight. The complete decomposition of RA was witnessed when the yellowish RA solution turned into a clear so-called `bleached RA' solution (Zhang and McMahon, 2000). Treating cells with bleached RA solution failed to elicit significant change on the frequency of SSC events, and the SSC frequency after bleached RA treatment was 0.9±0.1 (n=7) compared to a normalized control value of 1 (Fig. 2A,D). Moreover, the characteristics of SSC events were unaffected by the presence of bleached RA solution (Table 1). RA is a lipophilic, low molecular weight (300 Da) substance that may nonspecifically disrupt the lipid bilayer of the plasma membrane. We further examined the specificity of RA on the potentiation of SSC frequency. Adding 10 µM all-trans retinol (retinol), a structurally similar compound with greater membrane disrupting effects than RA (Ortiz et al., 1992
; Achkar et al., 1996
), had no effect on the frequency of spontaneous transmitter release (Fig. 2C,D) with only a 1.1-fold (±0.3) increase over the control value (n=7). This suggests that RA-induced facilitation of spontaneous transmitter release is not a consequence of nonspecific membrane disruption. The subsequent addition of RA after retinol treatment exerted a similar enhancement of SSC frequency as RA alone (Fig. 2C,D), 26.3±14.6 times greater than the control value (n=5). These results suggest that RA is responsible for the facilitation of spontaneous neurotransmitter release.
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Protein synthesis is not required for RA-induced facilitation of spontaneous transmitter release
RA effects mediated by modulation of gene expression are known to occur with a time lag of hours or even days and the action can last for a long time. However, our results show that the increase in SSC frequency produced by RA was rapid and dependent on the continued presence of the factor developing synapses in Xenopus. The SSC frequency was reduced almost to the control level within 5 minutes when the RA-containing medium was replaced with fresh medium after a 15-minute exposure to RA (Fig. 3). To further investigate this uncommonly rapid action, we tested the effect of protein synthesis inhibitors on RA-induced facilitation of spontaneous transmitter release. Protein synthesis inhibitors anisomycin (30 µM) or cycloheximide (30 µM) were added to the culture 45 minutes before the experiments. The SSC frequency facilitation effect of 30 µM RA was not hampered in the presence of anisomycin or cycloheximide (see Fig. 4; 29.4±10.5 and 24.7±12.7 normalized SSC frequencies for anisomycin and cycloheximide pretreatment respectively, n=7). This suggests that synthesis of new proteins is not necessary for RA-induced facilitation of spontaneous transmitter release.
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Receptor-selective analogues and SSC frequency facilitation
How does RA enhance presynaptic efficacy? Classically, the effect of RA is mediated by the activation of two classes of nuclear receptor, retinoic acid receptors (RAR-, -ß, -
) and retinoid X receptors (RXR-
, -ß, -
). We further propose that the SSC frequency facilitation induced by RA can also be attributed to classical steroid receptor activation and therefore, we investigated which subtype of receptor is involved in RA action. The roles of different subtypes of retinoid receptor on the SSC frequency facilitation were analyzed using receptor-selective synthetic retinoid agonists for the individual retinoid acid receptor subtypes at 10 µm concentration (see methods). Application of CD367 (RAR panagonist) yields similar results to RA (Figs 5 and 6) in facilitating spontaneous transmitter release 15.8±5.4 (n=7) times greater than the control level. In the presence of RAR
- and
-receptor agonists there was no change in the frequency of SSC events (1.0±0.2, n=7; and 1.5±0.4, n=7, compared to control for AM580 and CD3640 treatment, respectively). In contrast, treating cells with RARß agonist significantly increased the SSC frequency with a profile similar to RA, a rapid onset (
8-12 minutes) and with 11.5±2.7 (n=7) times control SSC frequency potentiation at the plateau. The SSC frequency remained unchanged (1.0±0.1, n=7) after the addition of RXR nonspecific agonist CD3640 (Figs 5 and 6).
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Discussion |
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Our results also provide new evidence for a non-classical, non-genomic mechanism for RA action in regulation of synaptic transmission at developing motoneurons. The retinoid receptors RAR and RXR belong to the steroid-thyroid-retinoid hormone receptor superfamily. Ligands of this superfamily may exert their action in living cells by the well-known genomic (classical) pathway, involving hormone binding to cytosolic receptors and subsequent modulation of gene expression followed by protein synthesis. Alternatively, pathways could be operating that do not act on the genome, therefore indicating non-genomic action (Losel et al., 2003). Although there is increasing evidence that steroids, thyroid hormones, and the metabolites of vitamin D3, 1
, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, can act with a rapid onset rather than their classical mode of genomic steroid action, very little is known of the RA effects on targets other than those classically described. Several convincing results provided by our study suggest that the SSC frequency facilitation induced by RA is incompatible with the classical genomic model of RA action. First, only a short timeframe was needed for the onset and termination of RA action. The time course of RA action on SSC frequency facilitation is much more rapid than the previously reported transcriptional effects of RA on cell differentiation. In addition, the frequency of SSC events return to control levels rapidly (
5-10 minutes) after the withdrawal of RA from culture medium. The rapid onset of facilitation following RA addition and the immediate decay of facilitation after RA removal suggests that the intracellular effector pathway does not involve a permanent alteration in the secretory machinery, which would have been associated with a traditional differentiation effect of RA. A second important clue to the non-genomic regulation of synaptic transmission induced by RA came from the finding that inhibitors of protein synthesis did not dampen the RA-induced SSC frequency facilitation. Previous studies based on Xenopus or crayfish neuromuscular junctions and Aplysia sensory to motor synapses have shown that local protein synthesis at synaptic sites may provide a potential mechanism for modulation of synaptic activity (Martin et al., 1997
; Beaumont et al., 2001
; Zhang and Poo, 2002
). However, we found that inhibition of protein synthesis with 30-µM anisomycin or cycloheximide had no effect on the rapid potentiation of spontaneous ACh secretion induced by RA. Thus the most likely action of RA is a direct modulation or a post-translational modification of effector proteins that are involved in the secretory machinery.
Much of our knowledge of the non-genomic effect of nuclear receptor superfamily comes from the studies of steroid hormones. Although it has been suggested that the rapid effects are likely to be transmitted via putative membrane receptors, such non-classical receptors are not yet well characterized and only limited information about their identity is available (Losel and Wehling, 2003). It has been suggested that RA reduces gap-junctional conductance in cultured retinal horizontal cells by binding to the external RARß/
binding site (Zhang and McMahon, 2000
). In addition, a study conducted with human lymphocytes has shown that RA blocks K+ channels by reversibly binding to a blocking site outside the channel (Sidell and Schlichter, 1986
). Although results from our study provide evidence that activation of the `RARß' receptor is responsible for RA-induced SSC frequency facilitation, its identity requires further investigation. How does RA enhance presynaptic efficacy? It is well known that the intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) level in the nerve terminal exerts a dominant effect on the rate of spontaneous transmitter release (Augustine et al., 1987
). This increase in [Ca2+]i may be due to influx of Ca2+ from the extracellular fluid or to release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores. Many experimental approaches have suggested a role for steroid hormones in intracellular Ca2+ regulation. Aldosterone induces a rapid increase in intracellular protein kinase C (PKC) activity and a rise in Ca2+ in human distal colon cells (Doolan et al., 1998
). In cultured skeletal muscle cells, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 produced a rise in [Ca2+]i by promoting a non-genomic release of Ca2+ from internal stores via activation of phospholipase C and D and 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) and by calcium influx through L-type and store-operated Ca2+ channels (Capiati et al., 2000
). It has been suggested that RA modulates PKC activity by competing with acidic phospholipids to bind to the C2-domain of PKC. Furthermore, results from amino acid alignments and crystal structure analysis suggest the existence of an RA binding site on the PKC molecule (Radominska-Pandya et al., 2000
; Ochoa et al., 2003
). However, it remains to be seen whether RA-induced SSC frequency facilitation results from direct modulation of voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels or from liberated Ca2+ from intracellular stores via activation of a second-messenger signaling cascade.
Apart from its known effect in patterning both the anteroposterior and dorsoventral axes, RA also has considerable significance as a neural differentiation factor. During development, RA receptors are present in developing motoneurons, and high levels of RA have been detected in the spinal cord (Wagner et al., 1990; Horton and Maden, 1995
). In the present study, we provide the first physiological evidence that RA enhances the spontaneous transmitter release at the developing neuromuscular synapse. What is the functional significance of potentiating ACh secretion by RA during the early phase of synaptogenesis? Neuronal activity at developing synapses is crucial in synapse maturation and competition as well as in the differentiation of postsynaptic properties (Balice-Gordon and Lichtman, 1993
; Lo and Poo, 1991
). The potentiation of spontaneous ACh release at developing neuromuscular synapses may have a profound developmental significance. Several studies indicate that the gene expression and secretion of neurotrophic factors NT-3 and NT-4 in the neuromuscular junction are regulated by synaptic activity (Liou and Fu, 1997
; Xie et al., 1997
). Activity-dependent secretion of neurotrophic factors is also important in synaptic activity regulation and may be involved in Hebbian-type homosynaptic potentiation (Poo, 2001
). Furthermore, SSCs at developing neuromuscular junctions in Xenopus cultures are capable of eliciting action potentials and spontaneous contractions in muscle cells (Chow and Poo, 1985
). This frequent supra-threshold excitation produces a global influence on the development of contractile properties of the postsynaptic muscle cell (Kidokoro and Saito, 1988
). In addition, spontaneous synaptic potentials are accompanied by a localized influx of ions at the subsynaptic site of the muscle, including Ca2+ (Decker and Dani, 1990
). Local Ca2+ accumulation and the consequent Ca2+-dependent enzymatic reactions are likely to play an important role in regulating the development of postsynaptic structure.
In conclusion, our results suggest that RA rapidly enhances the activity and efficacy of developing neuromuscular synapses. RA may therefore have a significant role in initiating the consecutive and complex cross-interaction between presynaptic motoneurons and postsynaptic muscle cells that then lead to the maturation of the neuromuscular synapse.
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Acknowledgments |
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