Estimation of single channel conductance underlying synaptic transmission between pyramidal cells in the visual cortex

Axon collaterals originating from pyramidal cells are one of the most abundant presynaptic elements in the neocortical circuits. To understand a quantitative aspect of synaptic transmission between pyramidal cells, we attempted to estimate single channel conductance by applying non-stationary noise analysis to unitary excitatory postsynaptic currents. Simultaneous recordings were carried out in two pyramidal cells of superficial layers in visual cortical slices. Unitary postsynaptic currents, which were evoked by action potentials of presynaptic cells impaled with conventional sharp electrodes, were recorded from postsynaptic cells with whole-cell patch clamp techniques. Estimated single channel conductance was 12.8 3.8(S.D.) pS for kittens and 10.4 +/- 1.5 pS for rats. Dividing these values by the conductance for unitary postsynaptic currents, we calculated the number of non-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor channels activated during the postsynaptic currents. The obtained estimates were 52 (kittens) and 41 (rats). To further estimate the number of channels involved in each quantal event, we analysed amplitude histograms of miniature and spike-evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents. The derived number of estimates from these two kinds of histograms agreed quite well; about 20 channels were required for individual quantal events. Assuming open probability of non-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor channels to be 0.7, our results suggest that the number of channels available for synaptic transmission between individual pyramidal cells would be 74 (kittens) and 59 (rats). We propose that at pyramidal-pyramidal synapses, the number of open channels is several times smaller than that previously reported for the synapses between geniculo-cortical afferent and layer IV spiny stellate cells.