In rat dorsal horn, little is known about the properties of synaptic NMDA receptors during the first two postnatal weeks, a period of intense synaptogenesis. Using transverse spinal cord slices from postnatal day 0-15 rats, we show that 20% of glutamatergic synapses tested at low-stimulation intensity in spinal cord laminae I and II were mediated exclusively by NMDA receptors. Essentially all o...

Previous studies have shown that blockade of ventral tegmental area (VTA) glutamate N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) receptors induces reward, stimulates forward locomotion and enhances brain stimulation reward. Glutamate induces two types of excitatory response on VTA neurons, a fast and short lasting depolarization mediated by α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA) receptors and ...

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a reflection of synaptic plasticity that induced by specific patterns of synaptic activity and has an important role in learning and memory. The first clue of the potential role of glutamate receptors in LTP was in 1991 with the observation that the mGluR agonists 1-amino-1, 3-cyclopentanedicarboxylic acid (ACPD), increased LTP. Studies have shown that ACPD induc...

The effect of glutamate receptor agonists on the intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i), measured with Indo-1, was studied in populations of cultured chick embryonic retina cells. The agonists of the ionotropic glutamate receptors, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), kainate, and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) increased the [Ca2+]i through a composite effec...

Changes in ionotropic glutamate NMDA, AMPA and KA receptor binding in rat caudate-putamen were examined by quantitative in vitro receptor autoradiography 5 weeks after lesioning nigrostriatal dopaminergic projections. In this animal model of Parkinson's disease, density of binding in caudate-putamen increased at KA, but not NMDA or AMPA receptors. The findings indicate that nigrostriatal dopami...

The atypical antipsychotic drug clozapine effectively alleviates both negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia via unclear cellular mechanisms. Clozapine may modulate both glutamatergic and dopaminergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to achieve part of its therapeutic actions. Using whole cell patch-clamp techniques, current-clamp recordings in layers V-VI pyramidal neurons ...

Subplate neurons (SPn) play an important role in the formation of thalamocortical connections during early development and show glutamatergic and GABAergic spontaneous synaptic activity. We characterized these synaptic inputs by performing whole-cell recordings from SPn in somatosensory cortical slices of postnatal day 0-3 rats. At -70 mV, electrical stimulation of the thalamocortical afferents...

AIMS To investigate glutamate receptor subtypes during alcohol withdrawal. METHODS Rats were exposed to severe alcohol intoxication for 84 h and then decapitated at 0, 12 and 36 h after the last alcohol dose (n = 7 per group). Alcohol was administered five times a day by intragastric intubation. The densities of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and 2-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic a...

The phosphorylation of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK) II, induced by an increase in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, is involved in the alteration of brain functions such as memory formation. In the present study, we examined the influence of various immobilization stress paradigms on the phosphorylation of CaMKII (phospho-CaMKII) and CaMKII levels in the rat hippocampu...

mammalian CNS, the actions of which are regulated by ionotropic glutamate (iGlu) and metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlu). mGlu receptors are a family of G-protein-coupled receptors comprising eight members, refered to as mGlu1-8. Group I receptors include mGlu1 and mGlu5, which when expressed are coupled via Gq to phospholipase C. Group II (mGlu2 and mGlu3) and group III (mGlu4,6,7,8) recep...