Development of pacemaker properties and rhythmogenic mechanisms in the mouse embryonic respiratory network
- Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d'Aquitaine, CNRS UMR 5287, France
- Washington and Lee University, United States
Abstract
Breathing is a vital rhythmic behavior generated by hindbrain neuronal circuitry, including the preBötzinger complex network (preBötC) that controls inspiration. The emergence of preBötC network activity during prenatal development has been described but little is known regarding inspiratory neurons expressing pacemaker properties at embryonic stages. Here, we combined calcium imaging and electrophysiological recordings in mouse embryo brainstem slices together with computational modeling to reveal the existence of heterogeneous pacemaker oscillatory properties relying on distinct combinations of burst-generating INaP and ICAN conductances. The respective proportion of the different inspiratory pacemaker subtypes changes during prenatal development. Concomitantly, network rhythmogenesis switches from a purely INaP/ICAN-dependent mechanism at E16.5 to a combined pacemaker/network-driven process at E18.5. Our results provide the first description of pacemaker bursting properties in embryonic preBötC neurons and indicate that network rhythmogenesis undergoes important changes during prenatal development through alterations both in circuit properties and the biophysical characteristics of pacemaker neurons.
Article and author information
Author details
Muriel Thoby-Brisson
Funding
Agence Nationale pour le Développement de la Recherche en Santé (ANR12-BSV4-0011-01)
- Muriel Thoby-Brisson
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experiments were performed in accordance with the guidelines of the European and French National legislation on animal experimentation and the local ethics committee of the University of Bordeaux (permit number 5012031A)
Copyright
© 2016, Chevalier et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Development of pacemaker properties and rhythmogenic mechanisms in the mouse embryonic respiratory network
eLife 5:e16125.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16125
