Astrocyte aging reduces presynaptic mechanisms of synaptic transmission.

<p>(A) Representative traces of mEPSCs recorded in the presence of 0.5 µM TTX. The Vh was −70 mV. (B) Frequencies of mEPSC events observed in neurons co-cultured with 5- (control), 9- and 16-week-old astrocytes (<i>n</i> = 64, 58 and 58 autaptic neurons, respectively). (C) Amplitudes of mEPSCs. The cumulative histogram shows the amplitudes measured from 19,990 (control), 14,806 (9-week) and 13,924 mEPSC events (16-week old astrocytes), with a bin size of 5 pA. <i>Inset</i> shows the amplitudes of mEPSCs (means of mean amplitudes) recorded from individual neurons. Data were obtained under the same experimental conditions as in (B). **, p<0.01.