–The GABAA receptor is a ligand-operated chloride channel. It has a pentameric structure. In mammalian brain different subunits are recruited from four gene subfamilies. Using immunocytochemistry, we investigated the distribution of the 13 GABAA receptor subunits in the hippocampus of the rat. GABAA receptor subunits were heterogeneously distributed within different hippocampal subfields. High ...

The GABAA receptor is a ligand-gated ion channel of the Cys-loop family that includes nicotinic acetylcholine, 5-HT3 and strychnine-sensitive glycine receptors. receptor-mediated inhibition within CNS occurs by fast synaptic transmission, sustained tonic temporally intermediate events have been termed 'GABAA, slow' [45]. receptors exist as pentamers 4TM subunits form an intrinsic anion selectiv...

The expression patterns of 13 GABAA receptor subunit encoding genes (alpha 1-alpha 6, beta 1-beta 3, gamma 1-gamma 3, delta) were determined in adult rat brain by in situ hybridization. Each mRNA displayed a unique distribution, ranging from ubiquitous (alpha 1 mRNA) to narrowly confined (alpha 6 mRNA was present only in cerebellar granule cells). Some neuronal populations coexpressed large num...

In adult rats, intraperitoneal administration of kainic acid, a glutamic acid analog and potent neurotoxin, induces persistent seizure activity that results in electrographic alterations and neuropathology that closely resemble human temporal lobe epilepsy. We used in situ hybridization to identify regions of altered glutamate and GABAA receptor gene expression following kainate-induced status ...

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), which affect over 1% of the population, has increased twofold in recent years. Reduced expression of GABAA receptors has been observed in postmortem brain tissue and neuroimaging of individuals with ASDs. We found that deletion of the gene for the α5 subunit of the GABAA receptor caused robust autism-like behaviors in mice, including reduced s...

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the leading cause of inherited intellectual disability. Comorbidities of FXS such as autism are increasingly linked to imbalances in excitation and inhibition (E/I) as well as dysfunction in GABAergic transmission in a number of brain regions including the amygdala. However, the link between E/I imbalance and GABAergic transmission deficits in the FXS amygdala is poo...

The magnocellular hypothalamic neurons exhibit a substantial degree of structural and functional plasticity over the time of pregnancy, parturition, and lactation. This study has used in situ hybridization techniques to examine whether the content of alpha 1, alpha 2, beta 2, gamma 2 GABAA receptor subunit mRNAs expressed by these cells fluctuates over this period. A process of regional, follow...

Benzodiazepine (BZ) binding site ligands are important central nervous system (CNS) drugs. Their numbers and our knowledge of how they interact with the BZ-binding site of GABAA receptors are both rapidly expanding. The GABAA receptor is a member of the ligand-gated ion channel superfamily. In general, it consists of an assembly of transmembrane pentamers of different subunit compositions (1). ...