Neuronal and glial glutamate transporters play a central role in the termination of synaptic transmission and in extracellular glutamate homeostasis in the mammalian central nervous system. They are known to be multimers; however, the number of subunits forming a functional transporter is controversial. We studied the subunit stoichiometry of two distantly related glutamate transporters, the hu...

Cervical nerve root injury commonly leads to radicular pain. Normal sensation relies on regulation of extracellular glutamate in the spinal cord by glutamate transporters. The goal of this study was to define the temporal response of spinal glutamate transporters (glial glutamate transporter 1 [GLT-1], glutamate-aspartate transporter [GLAST], and excitatory amino acid carrier 1) following nerve...

In order to adjust changing environmental conditions, bacteria use nucleotide second messengers transduce external signals and translate them into a specific cellular response. Cyclic di-adenosine monophosphate (c-di-AMP) is the only known essential messenger. addition well-established role of this messenger in control potassium homeostasis, we observed that glutamate as toxic for c-di-AMP-free...

L-Glutamate elicits an inwardly rectifying current at hyperpolarized potentials in isolated retinal cones of the tiger salamander, as measured under whole-cell patch clamp. Evidence presented in this article supports the notion that cones possess a high-affinity glutamate transporter. This glutamate-elicited current shows no desensitization over a period of several minutes, and has an affinity ...

Polyneuropathy is a common and important chemotherapy-induced adverse effect which often leads to dose modifications and impact on patients’ quality of life. Limited treatment options for prevention and management of this neuropathology stimulate further research on the topic. Recent attention has been focused on downregulation of glial glutamate transporter expression observed in spinal region...

Glutamate transporters in the CNS are expressed in neurons and glia and mediate high affinity, electrogenic uptake of extracellular glutamate. Although glia have the highest capacity for glutamate uptake, the amount of glutamate that reaches glial membranes following release and the rate that glial transporters bind and sequester transmitter is not known. We find that stimulation of Schaffer co...

Extracellular glutamate concentrations are regulated by glial and neuronal transporter proteins. Four glutamate transporter subtypes have been identified in rat brain; GLAST and GLT-1 are primarily astrocytic, whereas EAAC1 and EAAT4 are neuronal. Using immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry with subtype-specific antipeptide antibodies, we examined the protein expression and regional and cellu...