The role for excitatory amino acids (EAAs) in the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) in descending pain modulation after persistent noxious input is unclear. In an animal model of inflammatory hyperalgesia, we examined the effects of intra-RVM microinjection of EAA receptor agonists and antagonists on paw withdrawal and tail-flick responses in lightly anesthetized rats. N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NM...

Glutamate kills neurons by excitotoxicity, which is caused by sustained activation of glutamate receptors. In recent years, it has been shown that glutamate can also be toxic to white matter oligodendrocytes and to myelin by this mechanism. In particular, glutamate receptor-mediated injury to these cells can be triggered by activation of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid,...

Glutamate is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, and distinct classes of glutamate receptors coordinate synaptic transmission and spike generation upon various levels of neuronal activity. However, the mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we found that loss of synaptic AMPA receptors increased kainate receptor activity in cerebellar granule cells without changing NMDA recept...

We report the cloning of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptor-binding protein (ABP), a postsynaptic density (PSD) protein related to glutamate receptor-interacting protein (GRIP) with two sets of three PDZ domains, which binds the GluR2/3 AMPA receptor subunits. ABP exhibits widespread CNS expression and is found at the postsynaptic membrane. We show that th...

A particular characteristic of the neonatal hippocampus is the presence of spontaneous network-driven oscillatory events, the so-called giant depolarizing potentials (GDPs). GDPs depend on the interplay between GABA and glutamate. Early in development, GABA, acting on GABAA receptors, depolarizes neuronal membranes via a Cl- efflux. Glutamate, via AMPA receptors, generates a positive feedback n...

Dose-response curves for activation of excitatory amino acid receptors on mouse embryonic hippocampal neurons in culture were recorded for 15 excitatory amino acids, including the L-isomers of glutamate, aspartate, and a family of endogenous sulfur amino acids. In the presence of 3 microM glycine, with no extracellular Mg, micromolar concentrations of 11 of these amino acids produced selective ...

Cultured spinal cord networks grown on microelectrode arrays display complex patterns of spontaneous burst and spike activity. During disinhibition with bicuculline and strychnine, synchronized burst patterns routinely emerge. However, the variability of both intra- and interculture burst periods and durations are typically large under these conditions. As a further step in simplification of sy...

We investigated the role of kainate (KA) receptor activation and desensitization in inducing the increase in the intracellular free Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](i)) in individual cultured rat hippocampal neurons. The rat hippocampal neurons in the cultures were shown to express kainate receptor subunits, KA2 and GluR6/7, either by immunocytochemistry or by immunoblot analysis. The effect of L...