Ion channels, like many other proteins, are composed of multiple structural domains. A stimulus that impinges on one domain, such as binding of a ligand to its recognition site, can influence the activity of another domain, such as a transmembrane channel gate, through interdomain interactions. Kinetic schemes that describe the function of interacting domains typically incorporate a minimal num...

The whisker-to-barrel system of adult mice was used in a study on the effects of short-lasting tactile stimulation and sensory conditioning training on GABAA receptor binding in the barrel field of somatosensory cortex. In vitro receptor binding autoradiography was used to examine the pattern and intensity of [3H]muscimol binding to GABAA receptors. A well-defined pattern of GABAA receptors in ...

We have evaluated the capacitating effect of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in ram spermatozoa in vitro, in a chemically defined medium, by means of the chlortetracycline (CTC) binding assay. Semen from adult Australian Merino rams was collected in an artificial vagina; spermatozoa were washed once in modified Biggers, Whitten, and Wittingham medium (m-BWW), without BSA or serum, and incubated ...

αβγ GABAA receptor currents are phasic and desensitizing while αβδ GABAA receptor currents are tonic and have no fast desensitization. αβγ receptors are subsynaptic and mediate phasic inhibition while αβδ receptors are extra or peri-synaptic and mediate tonic inhibition. Given the different roles of these GABAA receptor isoforms and that GABAA receptors are allosterically regulated by extracell...

Previous studies indicate that organ fibroblasts play an important role in wound healing, collagen production, remodeling processes and pathogenesis of progressive heart, lung, renal and hepatic fibrotic diseases. Several studies suggest a possible inhibitory role for adenosine in the regulation of fibroblast proliferation. The effect of adenosine A2 agonists on proliferation and differentiatio...

Differentiated glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive astrocytes in homogeneous cultures of early postnatal rat cerebral hemispheres respond by membrane depolarization to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glutamate, and aspartate with a threshold concentration of approximately 10(-5) M. The GABA-induced depolarization is antagonized by two blockers of the neuronal GABAA receptor, picrotoxin and...

In the CNS, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) affects neuronal activity through both the ligand-gated GABAA receptor channel and the G protein-coupled GABAB receptor. In the mature nervous system, both receptor subtypes decrease neural excitability, whereas in most neurons during development, the GABAA receptor increases neural excitability and raises cytosolic Ca2+ levels. We used Ca2+ digital im...

Sadeghi H, Taylor HS. HOXA10 regulates endometrial GABAA receptor expression and membrane translocation. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 298: E889 –E893, 2010. First published January 26, 2010; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00577.2009.—Expression of the GABAA receptor has been described previously in the human endometrium in both luminal epithelium and stroma. Its expression is increased during decidualiza...