Fig. 3: Patch-clamp electrophysiology and calcium imaging of hCS neurons.
a Raw traces of whole-cell currents (holding potential Vh = −60 to −70 mV) representative for each condition. b Raw traces of action potentials (AP) representative for each condition. c Current–voltage (IV) curves for each group. Currents of individual IV curves were normalized to maximum peak values and then averaged. d Evoked whole-cell currents peak maximum values (Imax). Li significantly increases Imax in BD hCS (Δ(Imax) = 171.94 ± 76.80 pA, p = 0.01), particularly for Li-R hCS neurons (Δ(Imax) = 209.34 ± 102.42 pA, p = 0.03). e Threshold membrane voltages (Vt) of Imax, showing BD is less excitable than CTRL hCS neurons (Δ(Vt) = 5.32 ± 2.93 mV, p = 0.04). Li treatment increases excitability of BD hCS (via decreasing threshold voltage, Δ(Vt) = 5.14 ± 2.86 mV, p = 0.02), significant for Li-N hCS (Δ(Vt) = 11.84 ± 5.62 mV, p = 0.02). f Membrane resting potentials (RP). g Voltage–current (VI) curves for each group. Individual VI curves were averaged for correspondent group. h Representative trace images of spontaneous CaCl2 transients in hCS regions of interest (ROIs) over a 20-min period. i Percentage of signaling ROIs after Li treatment. j Average amplitude of Ca2+ signal transients (%ΔF/F). I-shaped box charts represents 25–75% of range intervals and median horizontal brackets, overlapped with data; square symbol represent mean value. CTRL (N = 10), Li-N (N = 5), Li-R (N = 6). Data was analyzed by Mann–Whitney U test and Wilcoxon test for unpaired and paired group comparisons respectively. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.
