01 for all concentrations tested vs. control, one-way anova, Tukey’s multiple comparison test; Fig. 2A–C). A concentration-dependent effect of medetomidine on migratory speed was observed (Fig. 2B). This concentration-dependent effect could be detected after application of guanfacine, an agonist with some selectivity for the adra2a subtype (P < 0.01 for all concentrations tested vs. control, one-way anova, Tukey’s multiple comparison test; Fig. 2A–C, Movies S3) and (+)-m-nitrobiphenyline oxalate, a more specific adra2c agonist (P < 0.01 for all concentrations tested vs. control, one-way anova, Tukey’s multiple comparison

test; Fig. 2D), further confirming that activation of adra2a and adra2c affects the migratory speed of GAD65-GFP+ cortical interneurons. To test whether these drugs altered cortical interneuron migration by specifically acting on adra2a and adra2c receptors, time-lapse imaging click here was performed on cortical slices of adra2a/2c-ko GAD65-GFP mice (Hein et al., 1999). No EPZ015666 price basal differences in the

mean migratory speeds were observed in adra2a/2c-ko GAD65-GFP cells compared to control GAD65-GFP+ cells. Single-cell tracking revealed that guanfacine (300 μm) and medetomidine (300 μm) significantly decreased the migration speed of GAD65-GFP+ interneurons compared to adra2a/2c-ko GAD65-GFP+ interneurons (P < 0.01 for guanfacine in controls vs. guanfacine in adra2a/2c-ko and P < 0.01 for medetomidine in controls vs. medetomidine in adra2a/2c-ko, one-way anova, Tukey’s multiple comparison

test; Fig. 2E and F), indicating that the effects of these drugs on GAD65-GFP+ migrating interneurons are dependent on the activation of adra2a and adra2c receptors. It should be noted, however, that guanfacine decreased the migratory speed of adra2a/2c-ko GAD65-GFP+ cells (P < 0.05, one-way anova, Tukey’s multiple comparison test), suggesting that guanfacine could partially act independently of adra2a/2c receptor activation. To test whether adra2 agonist stimulation produced persistent effects on interneuron Afatinib cost migration, medetomidine (500 μm) was applied in the bath medium for > 6 h. Using this protocol, we observed that long-term application of medetomidine (> 6 h) almost completely halted the migration of cortical interneurons without inducing toxic effects such as cell death (Fig. 3A and C, Movies S4). In contrast, when medetomidine was washed out of the medium after a shorter time period of drug application (95 min), the effects of adra2 activation on the speed of interneuron migration were reversible (Fig 3B and C, Movies S5). Single-cell tracking revealed that after washing out medetomidine, the migratory speed of GAD65-GFP+ interneurons significantly increased and gradually reached control values (P < 0.01 at the first time interval after the drug washout when comparing medetomidine vs.