Abstract #0055

Active, neuronal-activity-dependent trans-membrane water cycling detected by NMR

Ruiliang Bai¹, Charles S Springer², Dietmar Plenz³, and Peter J Basser⁴

¹Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Qiushi Academy For Advanced Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ²Advanced Imaging Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States, ³Section on Critical Brain Dynamics, LSN, NIMH, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, ⁴Section on Quantitative Imaging and Tissue Sciences, DIBGI, NICHD, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States

Transmembrane water cycling has long been thought an entirely passive, diffusion-dominated process. Recent studies suggest that an energetically active water cycling (AWC) mechanism, driven by Na⁺-K⁺-ATPase (NKA) pump activity, also occurs in different cell types, including neurons and astrocytes. Here we hypothesize that monitoring AWC could provide a new, more direct physical indicator of neuronal activity, which involves much ion cycling and enhanced NKA activity. By investigating neuronal populations in vitro under resting conditions with spontanotanous activity, and perturbed with tetrodotoxin (TTX), we found TTX simultanously reduces neuronal spiking activity and AWC (by >63%) suggesting AWC directly reflects neuronal activity.

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