The addition of Methionine Sulfoximine, an inhibitor of the Glutamate-Glutamine cycle, decreases excitatory post-synaptic potentials in <em>Orconectes sanbarnii</em> muscle cells

Abstract

The objective of our study was to determine if inhibiting the glutamate-glutamine cycle would increase the amplitude of synaptic potentials in crayfish neuromuscular junctions (Orconectes sanbarnii). We based our experiment on previous studies, which showed that the inhibitory chemical methionine sulfoximine (MSO) increases the amplitude of synaptic potentials in the neuromuscular junction of crayfish (Bidmon 2008). To replicate this experiment as closely as possible, we measured excitatory post-synaptic potential's (EPSP's) in crayfish muscle cells with a glass microelectrode. We used a two-sample t test and determined that there was a statistically significant decrease between the control and the treated crayfish. This evidence contradicted the study that we based our experiment on, but its results closely resemble another scientific study. In that experiment the glutamate-glutamine cycle was inhibited in rats, and the amplitude of IPSCs significantly decreased following the rats being treated with MSO in the hippocampal area of their brains (Shulman 2006).