OPIOID RECEPTORS ARE INVOLVED IN AN NMDA RECEPTOR-INDEPENDENT MECHANISM OF LTP INDUCTION AT HIPPOCAMPAL MOSSY FIBER-CA3 SYNAPSES

Long-term potentiation (LTP) of mossy fiber responses in area CA3 of the rat hippocampus in vivo is blocked by naloxone, an opioid receptor antagonist, in a stereospecific and dose-dependent manner. LTP of commissural afferents to the same population of CA3 pyramidal cells is not attenuated by naloxone. This suggests that opioid receptors are involved in a mechanism of LTP induction that is specific to mossy fiber synapses, and that endogenous opioid peptides, presumably released as a result of mossy fiber stimulation, may be necessary for the induction of mossy fiber LTP. The naloxone sensitivity is limited to the induction phase of LTP, since naloxone does not reverse previously established LTP. These data suggest that LTP at the mossy fiber-CA3 synapse constitutes an NMDA receptor-independent, opioid receptor-dependent, form of hippocampal synaptic plasticity.