Ionotropic receptors are tightly regulated by second messenger systems and are often present along with their metabotropic counterparts on a neuron's plasma membrane. This leads to the hypothesis that the two receptor subtypes can interact, and indeed this has been observed in excitatory glutamate and inhibitory GABA receptors. In both systems the metabotropic pathway augments the ionotropic re...

The properties of GABA receptor-mediated responses were examined in noncultured astrocytes, acutely isolated from the mature rat hippocampus. Whole-cell patch clamping revealed a GABA-activated Cl- conductance that was mimicked by the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol and depressed by the GABAA antagonists bicuculline and picrotoxin. The GABAA-activated currents were potentiated by the barbiturat...

We assessed the contribution of GABAa and GABAc receptors to GABAergic effects on b- and d-wave in frog ERG in a wide range of light stimulation conditions. The amplitude of both b- and d-wave was increased during GABAa receptor blockade by bicuculline as well as during additional GABAc receptor blockade by picrotoxin. The effects of GABAa receptor blockade were more pronounced in light adaptat...

Liu, Qiuli, and Margaret T. T. Wong-Riley. Developmental changes in the expression of GABAA receptor subunits 1, 2, and 3 in the rat pre-Bötzinger complex. J Appl Physiol 96: 1825–1831, 2004. First published January 16, 2004; 10.1152/japplphysiol.01264.2003.—Previously, we reported that the pre-Bötzinger complex (PBC) exhibited a dramatic reduction in cytochrome oxidase activity at postnatal da...

Objective(s): Stress during pregnancy is able to bring extensive effects on neurobehavioral development in offspring. The GABAergic system plays a pivotal role in neuronal excitability, which can be affected by prenatal stress (PS). This study aimed to evaluate impact of the PS on γ2 subunit of gamma-aminobutyric acid A (GABAA) receptor gene expression in the hippocamp...

mAbs bd 17, bd 24, and bd 28 raised against bovine cerebral gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABAA)/benzodiazepine receptors were analyzed for their ability to detect each of 12 GABAA receptor subunits expressed in cultured mammalian cells. Results showed that mAb bd 17 recognizes epitopes on both beta 2 and beta 3 subunits while mAb bd 24 is selective for the alpha 1 subunit of human and bovine, but n...

gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in brain, is known to interact with a subclass of receptors that activate a ligand-gated chloride ion channel. Exposure of cultured embryonic chick neurons to physiological concentrations of GABA results in a time-dependent down-regulation of these GABAA receptors. To delineate the cellular mechanism(s) responsible for agonis...

In the present study, the effect of GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) receptor agonists and antagonists on morphine-induced antinociception was investigated in formalin test in rats. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of different doses of morphine (1, 3, 6 and 9 mg/kg) and intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of different doses of muscimol (0.5, 1 and 2 g/rat) or baclofen (0.25, 0.5 and 1 g/rat) ...

Several protein kinases are known to phosphorylate Ser/Thr residues of certain GABAA receptor subunits. Yet, the effect of phosphorylation on GABAA receptor function in neurons remains controversial, and the functional consequences of phosphorylating synaptic GABAA receptors of adult CNS neurons are poorly understood. We used whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of GABAA receptor-mediated miniatur...

In lamina II of the spinal dorsal horn, synaptic inhibition mediated by ionotropic GABAA and glycine receptors contributes to the integration of peripheral nociceptive messages. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings were performed from lamina II neurons in spinal cord slices to study the properties of miniature IPSCs (mIPSCs) mediated by activation of GABAA and glycine receptors in immature ( 30 d)...