Cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) express two glutamate transporters, EAAC1 (EAAT3) and EAAT4; however, their relative contribution to the uptake of glutamate at synapses is not known. We found that glutamate transporter currents recorded at climbing fiber (CF)-PC synapses are absent in mice lacking EAAT4 but unchanged in mice lacking EAAC1, indicating that EAAT4 is preferentially involved in cle...

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...

Pro-inflammatory stimuli evoke an export of glutamate from microglia that is sufficient to contribute to excitotoxicity in neighbouring neurons. Since microglia also express various glutamate receptors themselves, we were interested in the potential feedback of glutamate on this system. Several agonists of mGluRs (metabotropic glutamate receptors) were applied to primary rat microglia, and the ...

Signaling through glutamate receptors has been reported in human cancers, but the molecular mechanisms are not fully delineated. We report that in hepatocellular carcinoma and clear cell renal carcinoma cells, increased activity of hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) due to hypoxia or VHL loss-of-function, respectively, augmented release of glutamate, which was mediated by HIF-dependent expression...

Recent observations from our laboratory have led us to hypothesize that d-opioid receptors may play a role in neuronal protection against hypoxic / ischemic or glutamate excitotocity. To test our hypothesis in this work, we used two independent methods, i.e., ‘‘same field quantification’’ of morphologic criteria and a biochemical assay of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release (an index of cellula...

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 estrogenic ...

Glutamate, the neurotransmitter, enhances rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep when microinjected into the brain stem pedunculopontine tegmentum (PPT) of the cat and rat. Glutamate and its various receptors are normally present in the PPT cholinergic cell compartment. The aim of this study was to identify which specific receptor(s) in the cholinergic cell compartment of the PPT are involved in glutam...

Synaptic glutamate transients resulting from vesicular exocytosis are superimposed on a low baseline concentration of glutamate in the extracellular space. Reported values of baseline glutamate concentrations range up to 4 microM. If glutamate were present tonically at low micromolar concentrations, many receptors, especially the high-affinity NMDA receptors (NMDARs), would be activated or dese...

Introduction N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are glutamate receptors and responsible for controlling memory function and synaptic plasticity. 1 Activation of these receptors requires binding with glutamate or aspartate. These receptors are present in the limbic system, hypothalamus, and forebrain. 2 Binding of antibodies to these receptors lead to their removal from synaptic sites, thus l...