Synaptic inhibition, mediated by GABAA receptors, regulates neuronal firing, influences coincidence detection (König et al., 1996), and can synchronize the output of neural circuits (Cobb et al., 1995). Although GABAA receptors can be modulated by phosphorylation, few studies have directly addressed the role of such modulation at synapses, where the nonequilibrium conditions of receptor activat...

Certain anesthetics exhibit neurotoxicity in the brains of immature but not mature animals. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the adult brain, is excitatory on immature neurons via its action at the GABAA receptor, due to a reversed transmembrane chloride gradient. GABAA receptor activation in immature neurons is sufficient to open L-type voltage-gated c...

background: testosterone and its metabolites have important roles in learning and memory. the current study has conducted to assess the effect of pre-training, post-training and pre-probe trial intrahippocampal ca1 administration of 3 alpha-anderostanediol (one of the metabolites of testosterone) and indomethacin (as 3 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzyme blocker) on acquisition, consolida...

silver nanoparticles are increasingly used in various fields of biotechnology and applications in the medicine. objectives of this study were optimization of production of silver nanoparticles using biotransformations by fusarium oxysporum, and a further study on the location of nanoparticles synthesis in this microorganism. the reaction mixture contained the following ingredients (final concen...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the structurally related polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are abundant persistent organic pollutants that exert several comparable neurotoxic effects. Importantly, hydroxylated metabolites of PCBs and PBDEs have an increased neurotoxic potency. Recently, we demonstrated that PCBs can act as (partial) agonist on GABAA neurotransmitter receptors, with PC...

Fluid accumulation is critical for lung distension and normal development. The multi-subunit γ-amino butyric acid type A receptors (GABAA) mainly act by mediating chloride ion (Cl-) fluxes. Since fetal lung actively secretes Cl--rich fluid, we investigated the role of GABAA receptors in fetal lung development. The physiological ligand, GABA, and its synthesizing enzyme, glutamic acid decarboxyl...

Benzodiazepine receptor agonists are widely prescribed therapeutic agents that alter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)A activity and have anxiolytic effects. Post-operative use of benzodiazepines is a risk factor delirium. Inflammatory conditions the effects benzodiazepine. We investigated effect diazepam, typical benzodiazepine anxiolytic, on changes in emotional behavior mice hole-board test aft...

BACKGROUND The pathophysiology behind spina bifida and other neural tube defects (NTDs) is unclear. Folic acid is one variable, but other factors remain. Studies suggest that substances active at the GABA receptor may produce NTDs. To test this hypothesis pregnant rats were exposed to either the GABA a agonist muscimol (1, 2 or 4 mg/kg), the GABA a antagonist bicuculline (.5, 1, or 2 mg/kg), th...

Two forms of short-term synaptic plasticity, paired-pulse depression (PPD) and frequency depression, were prominent in the adult rat geniculo-cortical visual pathway in vivo. Iontophoresis of GABAa receptor antagonist (bicuculline methiodide) or GABAb receptor antagonist (2-hydroxy-saclofen) in the primary visual cortex significantly reduced the short-term synaptic depression. When NMDA or AMPA...

The functional role of GABAA receptors in inhibition of synaptic transmission between muscle spindle afferents and spinal motoneurons was studied in the isolated spinal cord of bullfrogs. Extracellular recording from the ventral root showed that activation of GABAA receptors by muscimol (primarily a GABAA receptor agonist) at 50 microM produced a 38% reduction in the amplitude of the excitatory...