GABA, the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain, binds to GABAA receptors, which form chloride ion channels. The predicted structure of the GABAA receptor places a consensus phosphorylation site for cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) on an intracellular domain of the channel. Phosphorylation by various protein kinases has been shown to alter the activity of certain ligand- a...

BACKGROUND Our goal is to use gene therapy to alleviate pain by targeting glial cells. In an animal model of facial pain we tested the effect of transfecting the glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) gene into satellite glial cells (SGCs) of the trigeminal ganglion by using a serotype 5 adenovector with high tropisms for glial cells. We postulated that GABA produced from the expression of GAD would...

Sadeghi H, Taylor HS. HOXA10 regulates endometrial GABAA receptor expression and membrane translocation. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 298: E889 –E893, 2010. First published January 26, 2010; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00577.2009.—Expression of the GABAA receptor has been described previously in the human endometrium in both luminal epithelium and stroma. Its expression is increased during decidualiza...

Feng, Hua-Jun and Robert L. Macdonald. Proton modulation of 1 3 GABAA receptor channel gating and desensitization. J Neurophysiol 92: 1577–1585, 2004. First published May 19, 2004; 10.1152/jn.00285.2004. GABAA receptor currents are phasic and desensitizing, whereas GABAA receptor currents are tonic and have no fast desensitization. receptors are subsynaptic and mediate phasic inhibition, wherea...

GABAA receptor modulating steroid antagonists (GAMSA) selectively inhibit neurosteroid-mediated enhancement of GABA-evoked currents at the GABAA receptor. 3α-hydroxy-neurosteroids, notably allopregnanolone and tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (THDOC), potentiate GABAA receptor-mediated currents. On the contrary, various 3β-hydroxy-steroids antagonize this positive neurosteroid-mediated modulation....

We studied spiking neurons isolated from turtle retina by the whole cell version of the patch clamp. The studied cells had perikaryal diameters > 15 microns and fired multiple spikes in response to depolarizing current steps, indicating they were ganglion cells. In symmetrical [Cl-], currents elicited by puffs of 100 microM gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) were inward at a holding potential of -8...

The inhibitory neurotransmitter !-aminobutyric acid (GABA) has multiple receptors. In mammals, the GABAA receptor subtype is modulated by neurosteroids. However, whether steroid interaction with the GABAA receptor is unique to mammals or a conserved feature in vertebrates is unknown. Thus, neurosteroid modulation of the GABAA receptor was investigated in the brain of the bullfrog (Rana catesbei...

For long time, plasticity of brain circuits has been hypothesized to mainly rely on the flexibility of glutamatergic excitatory synapses, whereas inhibitory synapses have been assumed to be relatively invariant. Based on this view, inhibition should be exclusively modulated by the differential glutamatergic-driven activation of a highly diverse population of inhibitory interneurons displaying s...

GABAA receptors mediate fast phasic inhibitory postsynaptic potentials and participate in slower tonic extrasynaptic inhibition. Thy1alpha6 mice with ectopic forebrain expression of GABAA receptor alpha6 subunits exhibit increased extrasynaptic GABAA receptor-mediated background conductance and reduced synaptic GABAA receptor currents in hippocampal CA1 neurons [W. Wisden et al. (2002) Neuropha...

...........................................................................................viii Abbreviations used in text....................................................................xi CHAPTER 1: General Introduction.........................................................1 I. Cardiac Arrest and Cerebral Ischemia............................................1 II. The Cerebellum and Purkin...