Effects of arsenite on long-term potentiation in hippocampal slices from young and adult rats.

The effects of trivalent arsenite were tested at the Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapse of adult (2-4 month) and young (14-21 days) rats. Exposure of 100micromol/l arsenite led to a slight and reversible reduction of the amplitudes of evoked excitatory postsynaptic field potentials in adult and young rats, while exposure of 0.1 and 1micromol/l arsenite had no effects. The long-term potentiation (LTP) was significantly inhibited by arsenite in adult but not in young rats. Exposure of 0.1, 1 and 100micromol/l arsenite to slices of adult rats before and during the LTP stimulus led to a significant reduction in the potentiated amplitudes amounting to a maximum of 50% of the control values. In young animals, however, exposure of 1micromol/l arsenite showed no effect on the LTP potentiated amplitudes, while exposure of 100micromol/l arsenite led initially to a significant reduction in the amplitudes, compared to the control level, which was completely reversible 20min after washout. Exposure of 100micromol/l arsenite did not affect the paired-pulse facilitation, indicating that arsenite does not exert its effects by influencing presynaptic transmitter release mechanisms.