Olena Bukalo, Melitta Schachner, Alexander Dityatev

Predisposition of synapses to undergo plastic changes can be dynamically adjusted according to the history of synaptic activity (i.e., synapses are metaplastic). In search of a molecular mechanism underlying metaplasticity, we investigated mice deficient in the glycoprotein tenascin-R (TNR), based on the observations that this mutant exhibits elevated basal excitatory synaptic transmission and reduced perisomatic GABAergic inhibition. TNR is a major extracellular matrix glycoprotein of the CNS and carries the HNK-1 carbohydrate (human natural killer cell glycan), which has been identified as the functional epitope mediating regulation of GABAergic transmission via GABA(B) receptors. Here, we used patch-clamp recordings in hippocampal slices to determine the critical levels of postsynaptic neuron depolarization necessary for induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) at CA3-CA1 synapses and found that deficiency in TNR leads to a metaplastic increase in the threshold for induction of LTP. Reconstitution of slices from TNR-deficient mice with an HNK-1 glycomimetic or pharmacological treatment with either a GABA(A) receptor agonist, a GABA(B) receptor antagonist, an L-type voltage-dependent Ca2+ channel blocker, or an inhibitor of protein serine/threonine phosphatases restored LTP to the levels seen in wild-type mice. We propose that a chain of events initiated by reduced GABAergic transmission and proceeding via Ca2+ entry into cells and elevated activity of phosphatases mediates homeostatic adjustment of hippocampal plasticity in the absence of TNR. These data uncover a novel mechanism by which an extracellular matrix molecule and its associated carbohydrate provide conditions beneficial for induction of LTP in the CA1 region of the hippocampus.