Golgi cell

Infobox Anatomy
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Caption = Microcircuitry of the cerebellum. Excitatory synapses are denoted by (+) and inhibitory synapses by (-).
MF: Mossy fiber.
DCN: Deep cerebellar nuclei.
IO: Inferior olive.
CF: Climbing fiber.
GC: Granule cell.
PF: Parallel fiber.
PC: Purkinje cell.
GgC: Golgi cell.
SC: Stellate cell.
BC: Basket cell.


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In neuroscience, Golgi cells are inhibitory interneurons found within the granular layer of the cerebellum. These cells synapse onto the soma of granule cells and unipolar brush cells. They receive excitatory input from mossy fibres, also synapsing on granule cells, and parallel fibers, which are long granule cell axons. Thereby this circuitry allows for feed-forward and feed-back inhibition of granule cells.

The main synapse made by these cells is a synapse onto the mossy fibre - granule cell excitatory synapse in a glomerulus. The glomerulus is made up of the mossy fibre terminal, granule cell dendrites, the golgi terminal and is enclosed by a glial coat. [Cite journal
pmid = 3213958
author = R. L. Jakab and J. Hámori
year = 1988
title = Quantitative morphology and synaptology of cerebellar glomeruli in the rat
journal = Anatomy and Embryology
volume = 179
issue = 1
pages = 81–88
doi = 10.1007/BF00305102
url = http://www.springerlink.com/content/qtu8wn5xk408141g/] The golgi cell acts by altering the mossy fibre - granule cell synapse.

The golgi cells use GABA as their transmitter. The basal level of GABA produces a postsynaptic leak conductance by tonically activating alpha 6-containing GABA-A receptors on the granule cell. [Cite journal
pmid = 9003560
author = Brickley SG, Cull-Candy SG, Farrant M
year = 1996
title = Development of a tonic form of synaptic inhibition in rat cerebellar granule cells resulting from persistent activation of GABAA receptors
journal = J Physiol (Lond)
volume = 497
pages = 753–759] [Cite journal
url = http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/11/3630
author = Tia S, Wang JF, Kotchabhakdi N, Vicini S
year = 1996
title = Developmental changes of inhibitory synaptic currents in cerebellar granule neurons: role of GABAA receptor alpha 6 subunit
journal = Journal of Neuroscience
volume = 16
pages = 3630–3640
pmid = 8642407
format = abstract] [Cite journal
pmid = 9104595
author = Wall MJ, Usowicz MM
year = 1997
title = Development of action potential-dependent and independent spontaneous GABAA receptor-mediated currents in granule cells of postnatal rat cerebellum
journal = European Journal of Neuroscience
volume = 9
pages = 533–548
doi = 10.1111/j.1460-9568.1997.tb01630.x] These high-affinity receptors are located both synaptically and extrasynaptically on the granule cell. The synaptic receptors mediate phasic contraction, duration of around 20-30ms whereas the extrasynapatic receptors mediate tonic inhibiton of around 200ms, and are activated by synapse spill over. [Cite journal
url = http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/5/1693
author = Nusser Z, Sieghart W, Somogyi P
year = 1998
title = Segregation of different GABAA receptors to synaptic and extrasynaptic membranes of cerebellar granule cells
journal = Journal of Neuroscience
volume = 18
pages = 1693–1703
pmid = 9464994
format = abstract]

Additionally the GABA acts on GABA-B receptors which are located presynaptically on the mossy fibre terminal. These inhibit the mossy fibre evoked EPSCs of the granule cell in a temperature and frequency dependent manner. At high mossy firing frequency (10Hz) there is no effect of GABA acting on presynaptic GABA-B receptors on evoked EPSCs. However, at low (1Hz) firing the GABA does have an effect on the EPSCs mediated via these presynaptic GABA-B receptors.

References