Response of Schaffer collateral-CA 1 pyramidal cell synapses of the hippocampus to analogues of acidic amino acids.

Analogues of the putative excitatory transmitters aspartic acid and glutamic acid were tested for antagonism against stimulus-evoked activation of Schaffer collateral-CA 1 pyramidal cell synapses in slices of rat hippocampus. Responses to the analogues, applied via the superfusing medium, were extracellularly recorded. The compounds examined included D- and L-alpha-aminodicarboxylic acids, diaminodicarboxylic acids, phosphonate analogues of acidic amino acids, D- and L-gamma-glutamyl glycine, and the cis- and trans-isomers of piperidine 2,3-, and 2,4-dicarboxylic acid. Many of these compounds are known to be potent and selective antagonists for excitatory amino acids and a few excitatory pathways. In this hippocampal pathway most of these analogues showed relatively low and similar potency. The most potent antagonist uncontaminated with agonist activity was D-alpha-aminosuberate, with an apparent antagonist dissociation constant (Kd) of 3 mM. Only 5 of the analogues, 3 of the piperidine dicarboxylates, kainic acid, and L-alpha-aminopimelic acid, reduced the amplitude of the extracellularly recorded field potentials more than 30% at 0.5 mM. However, all of the others reduced the potential by more than 30% at 5 mM. Most analogues also evoked extracellular responses which can be attributed to depolarization of the pyramidal neurons. Agonist activity was particularly strong among the most potent analogues. These results contrast with the responses documented by others for the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor of the dorsal-ventral root excitatory pathway of the spinal cord in which the higher homologues tested here were the most potent antagonists, and the D-isomers were more potent than the L-isomers. It also contrasts with the response of the perforant path synapses to granule cells of the dentate gyrus in which the portion derived from the lateral entorhinal cortex is sensitive to L-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid. Thus the Schaffer-CA 1 pyramidal cell synaptic field utilizes a novel excitatory transmitter receptor which interacts detectably but only weakly with a variety of acidic amino acids with potent specific inhibitory action for receptors elsewhere in the central nervous system.