Moreover, incubation of the cells with 100 μM kainate for 5 min,

at 37 °C, also induced a significant change in extracellular ATP levels that increased from 1.73 ± 0.17 pmol/culture in control cultures to 3.14 ± 0.55 pmol/culture in kainate-treated cultures. This increase in extracellular ATP levels induced by kainate was completely prevented by the incubation of the cultures with the agonist in the presence of 50 μM DNQX or 50 μM MK-801 or in the presence of both antagonists. Since MK-801, an NMDA receptor Rapamycin concentration antagonist, blocked the increase in extracellular ATP levels in both glutamate- and kainate-treated cultures, the effect of NMDA on ATP levels was also evaluated (Fig. 6F). Müller glia cultures were incubated for 5 min, at 37 °C, with 100 μM NMDA in Hank’s medium without MgCl2, but with 2 mM glycine. However, no increase in extracellular ATP levels was observed in NMDA-treated cultures. No significant change was also noticed in cultures treated with NMDA in the presence of 50 μM of the antagonist MK-801. Exocytosis is a regulated pathway of transmitter release that depends on intracellular calcium elevation. To investigate if glutamate-induced increase in extracellular

ATP level was dependent on intracellular calcium rise, glia-enriched cultures were pre-incubated with 30 μM of the Ca2+ chelator BAPTA-AM for 15 min, at 30 °C and incubated with 1 mM glutamate for an additional 5 min period. As can be observed in Fig. 7, glutamate induced a ∼2× increase in extracellular nucleotide levels, an increase that was completely blocked by the addition of BAPTA-AM to the incubation medium. No significant difference in ATP levels was observed in BAPTA-AM-treated selleck inhibitor cultures, either in the presence or absence of glutamate, as compared to the control cultures. According to the evidences showing that bafilomycin A1 impairs ATP storage in secretory organelles, a decrease in glutamate-induced rise in extracellular Tolmetin ATP levels was expected to occur in bafilomycin A1-treated cultures. Müller glial cultures were pre-incubated with 1 μM bafilomycin

A1 for 1 h and then incubated with 1 mM glutamate for 5 min. A significant reduction in the glutamate-evoked increase in extracellular nucleotide levels was observed in cultures treated with the v-ATPase inhibitor. Nucleotide levels decreased to only 60% and 92% of the control levels in bafilomycin A1-treated and glutamate plus bafilomycin-treated cultures, respectively. Quinacrine is an acridine derivative that binds ATP with high affinity and is widely used to visualize ATP-containing sub-cellular compartments in living cells (Bodin and Burnstock, 2001b and Irvin and Irvin, 1954). In glial cells, quinacrine labeling of ATP-filled vesicles was first demonstrated in rat astrocytes (Coco et al., 2003). In the present study, we show that cultured chick Müller glia cells could also be stained with quinacrine, with a pattern of staining that was granular and located in the cytoplasm of cells.