Abstract: | The effect of extra- and intracellularly injected prostaglandins (PG) E2 and F2 on electrical activity and responses to acetylcholine and serotonin were studied in experiments on identified neurons ofHelix pomatia. As a rule prostaglandins modified the typical electrical activity of the identified neurons: PG E2 enhanced and PG F2 depressed it. These substances mainly weakened responses of the nerve cells to mediators: PG E2 caused a greater change in the response to serotonin and PG F2 in the response to acetylcholine. Effects of the prostaglandins when injected extracellularly and intracellularly differed. The possible molecular-cellular mechanisms of the central action of prostaglandins are discussed in the light of their functional connections with other universal regulators of cellular metabolism and with proteins specific for nerve tissues.P. K. Anokhin Research Institute of Normal Physiology, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 580–588, November–December, 1981. |