The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) regulates defensive responses to threats and its anteroventral portion (BNST-AV) is involved. BNST-AV contains a minority of glutamatergic neurons scattered among a dominant population of GABAergic cells. There is evidence that these two cell types might exert opposite influences, the former promoting and the latter reducing anxiety. Although GABAergic cells greatly outnumber glutamatergic neurons in BNST-AV, in some circumstances the influence of glutamatergic cells appears to predominate. Related to this, BNST-AV receives a very strong noradrenaline (NA) input and negative emotional states are associated with a marked rise of NA concentration in BNST-AV. However, it is currently unclear whether NA differentially alters the excitability of glutamatergic and GABAergic BNST-AV neurons. Thus, to shed light on how BNST-AV regulates negative emotional states, the present study compared the physiological properties and NA responsiveness of glutamatergic and GABAergic BNST-AV neurons using whole-cell recordings in transgenic mice that express a fluorescent reporter in either cell group. We found that glutamatergic cells had a slightly more complex morphology than the GABAergic cells, a higher intrinsic excitability, and a different responsiveness to NA. Indeed, while NA inhibited EPSPs in both cell types through α1 and α2 adrenoreceptors, the EPSP reduction seen in glutamatergic cells had a lower amplitude and a shorter duration than in GABAergic cells. These differences were due to the presence of a β-receptor-mediated EPSP enhancement in the glutamatergic cells. Together, our results suggest that multiple properties contribute to the disproportionate influence of glutamatergic BNST-AV neurons.

中文翻译：

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谷氨酸能和γ能的腹侧BNST神经元的生理特性和对去甲肾上腺素的反应性不同。

末端纹状体的床核（BNST）调节对威胁的防御反应，并且其前腹部分（BNST-AV）也参与其中。BNST-AV包含少数散布在占主导地位的GABA能细胞中的谷氨酸能神经元。有证据表明，这两种细胞类型可能产生相反的影响，前者促进焦虑，后者减少焦虑。尽管BNST-AV中的GABA能细胞大大超过了谷氨酸能神经元，但在某些情况下，谷氨酸能细胞的影响似乎占主导地位。与此相关的是，BNST-AV接受非常强的去甲肾上腺素（NA）输入，负性情绪状态与BNST-AV中NA浓度的显着升高有关。然而，目前尚不清楚NA是否会差异性改变谷氨酸能和GABA能的BNST-AV神经元的兴奋性。因此，为了阐明BNST-AV如何调节负性情绪状态，本研究使用转基因小鼠的全细胞记录比较了谷氨酸能和GABA能BNST-AV神经元的生理特性和NA反应性，这些基因在任一细胞组中均表达荧光报告基因。我们发现，谷氨酸能细胞比GABA能细胞具有更复杂的形态，更高的固有兴奋性和对NA的不同响应性。确实，虽然NA通过α1和α2肾上腺素能受体抑制两种细胞类型的EPSP，但与GABA能细胞相比，在谷氨酸能细胞中看到的EPSP降低幅度更短，持续时间更短。这些差异是由于在谷氨酸能细胞中存在β受体介导的EPSP增强。一起，