Neurotransmitter receptor density is a major variable in regulating synaptic strength. Receptors rapidly exchange between synapses and intracellular storage pools through endocytic recycling. In addition, lateral diffusion and confinement exchanges surface membrane receptors between synaptic and extrasynaptic sites. However, the signals that regulate this transition are currently unknown. GABAA...

The GABAergic synapse undergoes structural and functional maturation during early brain development. Maternal stress alters GABAergic synapses in the pup's brain that are associated with the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders in adults; however, the mechanism for this is still unclear. In this study, we examined the effects of maternal restraint stress on the development of Cation-Ch...

a-Chloralose is widely used as an anesthetic in the laboratory due to its minimal effects on autonomic and cardiovascular systems, yet little is known about its mechanism of action. We examined the effects of a-chloralose on g-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptor activity because recent studies have shown that several classes of general anesthetics modulate the function of this receptor. G...

Ethanol is a chemically simple compound that produces many well-known effects in humans. The prevailing idea for many years was that ethanol and other alcohols exerted their effects on the central nervous system (CNS) by non-selectively disrupting the lipid bilayers of neurons. However, in recent years, there has been an accumulation of evidence pointing to the importance of ligand-gated ion ch...

BACKGROUND Anaesthetic steroids are established positive allosteric modulators of GABAA receptors, but little is known concerning steroid modulation of strychnine-sensitive glycine receptors, the principal mediators of fast, inhibitory neurotransmission in the brain stem and spinal cord. This study compared the modulatory actions of five anaesthetic pregnane steroids and two non-anaesthetic iso...

A major challenge in understanding complex idiopathic generalized epilepsies has been the characterization of their underlying molecular genetic basis. Here, we report that genetic variation within the GABRD gene, which encodes the GABAA receptor delta subunit, affects GABA current amplitude consistent with a model of polygenic susceptibility to epilepsy in humans. We have found a GABRD Glu177A...

The tonic activation of extrasynaptic GABAA receptors by extracellular GABA provides a powerful means of regulating neuronal excitability. A consistent finding from studies that have used various models of temporal lobe epilepsy is that tonic GABAA receptor-mediated conductances are largely preserved in epileptic brain (in contrast to synaptic inhibition which is often reduced). Tonic inhibitio...

Traumatic brain injury is a major cause of death and disability worldwide and often associated with post-traumatic epilepsy. We recently demonstrated that TBI induces acquired GABAA receptors channelopathy that associates with hyperexcitability in granule cell layer (GCL). We now assessed the expression of GABAA and GABAB receptor subunit mRNAs between 6 h and 6 months post-TBI in the hippocamp...

Introduction: 17β-estradiol modulates nociception by binding to estrogenic receptors and also by allosteric interaction with other membrane-bound receptors like glutamate and GABAA receptors. Beside its autonomic functions, paragigantocellularis lateralis (LPGi) nucleus is also involved in pain modulation. The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of the intracellular estrogen...