This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.The goal of this project is to use cell-type specific promoters to drive fluorescent reporters to aid in optically guided electrophysiological recording from specific subpopulations of neurons within organotypic slice cultures of the rodent and primate amygdala. In 2006 we successfully incorporated the promoter region for the neurotransmitter cholecystokinin (CCK) into a lentiviral backbone and tagged this construct with a green fluorescent protein (GFP). This lentiviral construct was then used to transfect neurons in vivo, only those neurons that normally express CCK will co-express the GFP and hence can be visualized in an in vitro preparation. We have used this approach to examine the physiological properties of CCK interneurons in the rat basolateral amygdala, and a short report on our studies has recently been published.
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