Effects of progesterone on hypoxia-induced inhibition of excitatory synaptic transmission in the rat nucleus tractus solitarius

• Main Authors: Yoshiaki Ohi, Daisuke Kodama, Akira Haji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-07-01
• Series: Journal of Pharmacological Sciences
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1347861319356932

The present study evaluated the ability of progesterone to alleviate the synaptic transmission disturbed by hypoxia in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS). Hypoxia with N2 inhibited spontaneous and tractus solitarius-evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs and eEPSCs) in NTS neurons of the rat brainstem slice. An additional application of progesterone counteracted the hypoxia-induced inhibition of sEPSCs and eEPSCs without affecting the baseline currents. This effect of progesterone occurred rapidly and reversibly. Progesterone had neither effect on sEPSCs nor eEPSCs in normoxia. These results suggest that progesterone restores hypoxia-induced disturbance of the NTS glutamatergic transmission, presumably by a presynaptic, non-genomic mechanism. Keywords: Progesterone, Hypoxia, Nucleus tractus solitarius