In control slices preexposed to vehicle (0.2% DMSO), perfusion of SKF 81297 significantly enhanced AP generation as expected (Figure 5A, top). Interestingly, preexposure of slices to dynasore strongly inhibited this response (Figure 5A, bottom). This inhibitory effect of dynasore on D1 receptor-mediated AP firing was robust across experiments. Importantly, dynasore did not affect basal firing (Figure 5B). The time course of increased AP firing observed in selleck products vehicle-perfused slices is consistent with that of D1 receptor-mediated signaling in this preparation and, after accounting for perfusion

lag time, closely paralleled that of acute cAMP signaling measured in dissociated MSNs. We further verified that dynasore did not alter the basic firing properties of MSNs in this preparation (Figure S5) using a previously established method (Hopf et al., 2010). We next investigated the mechanism by which endocytosis promotes acute D1 receptor-mediated signaling. One possibility is that endocytosis-dependent augmentation of cAMP accumulation might require subsequent receptor recycling. This would be predicted if endocytosis mediates a function in D1 receptor signaling akin to resensitization of other GPCRs. We imaged SpH-D1R insertion events with high temporal resolution MK-2206 using TIRF microscopy and rapid dequenching of fluorescence upon exposure to the neutral extracellular milieu. Vesicular insertion events delivering

SpH-tagged receptors appear as “puffs” of transiently increased surface fluorescence intensity, detectable Diflunisal by rapid (10 Hz) serial imaging (Yudowski et al., 2006). Such insertions were observed immediately after DA washout (Figure 6A and Movie S3), even after prolonged exposure of cells to the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (data not shown). This indicates that D1 receptors can indeed undergo rapid surface delivery. Insertion events were also observed in the continued presence of agonist, but this required distinguishing insertion events (Figure 6B)

from the dimmer and longer-lasting receptor clusters representing clathrin-coated pits (Yu et al., 2010, Yudowski et al., 2006, Yudowski et al., 2007 and Yudowski et al., 2009). Integrated fluorescence intensity measurements (Figure 6C) and a conventional flow cytometric assay (Figure 6D) further verified recovery of the surface pool of receptors within several minutes after agonist washout. To specifically examine recycling of the internalized receptor pool, we analyzed surface recovery of FD1R initially labeled in the plasma membrane of MSNs using a previously described method (Tanowitz and von Zastrow, 2003). Figure 6E depicts the experimental schematic. Representative images of the conditions used to quantify D1 receptor recycling are shown in Figure 6F. Recycling determinations averaged across multiple neurons and experiments are shown in Figure 6G. The majority (89.4 ± 1.