Introduction: The Bed nucleus stria terminalis (BST) is a part of the limbic system. It was recently shown that chemical stimulation of the BST by L-glutamate elicited cardiovascular depressive responses. In the present study, we have investigated the possible cardiovascular role of the GABAergic receptors in BST by microinjection of its agonist and antagonists. Methods: Experiments were p...

BACKGROUND Several of the behavioral effects of amphetamine (AMPH) are mediated by an increase in dopamine neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens. However, evidence shows that γ-aminobutyric acid B (GABAB) receptors are involved in the behavioral effects of psychostimulants, including AMPH. Here, we examined the effects of co-administration of the GABAB receptor agonist baclofen and a posit...

KEY POINTS Cortico-hippocampal feed-forward circuits formed by the temporoammonic (TA) pathway exhibit a marked increase in excitation/inhibition ratio and abnormal spike modulation functions in Fmr1 knock-out (KO) mice. Inhibitory, but not excitatory, synapse dysfunction underlies cortico-hippocampal feed-forward circuit abnormalities in Fmr1 KO mice. GABA release is reduced in TA-associated i...

PCPGABA, injected into the cisterna magna, significantly stimulated gastric acid secretion in the perfused rat stomach preparation. This secretagogue action was dose-dependent (0.5-2 micrograms/rat). The peak response occurred within 60 min and lasted up to 100 min. The secretagogue action by PCPGABA was completely reduced by truncal vagotomy. Intracisternal injection of 5-aminovaleric acid, a ...

Depolarization-induced 86Rb efflux, an index of K+ efflux, was developed by using mammalian cultured spinal cord neurons to study the effect of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABAB) receptor activation on Ca2(+)-activated K(+)-channels. The Ca2(+)-activated 86Rb efflux was obtained by using two methods. The first method utilized depolarizing concentrations of KCl (100 mM) to study the voltage-gated C...

Seven-transmembrane domain (7TM) receptors have important functions in cell-cell communication and can assemble into dimers or oligomers. Such complexes may allow specific functional cross-talk through trans-activation of interacting 7TMs, but this hypothesis requires further validation. Herein, we used the GABAB receptor, which is composed of two distinct subunits, GABAB1, which binds the agon...

The intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) of the thalamus constitutes a small but important part of the neural network controlling circadian activity in rodents. It appears that IGL integrates photic cues from retina with non-photic information originating from different nonspecific brain systems. Subsequently, this integrated signal is passed to the master biological clock - the suprachiasmatic nuclei...

The compounds CGP7930 [2,6-Di-tert-butyl-4-(3-hydroxy-2,2dimethyl-propyl)-phenol] and its close analog CGP13501 were identified as positive modulators of -aminobutyric acidB (GABAB) receptor function. They potentiate GABA-stimulated guanosine 5 -O-(3-[S]thiotriphosphate) (GTP [S]) binding to membranes from a GABAB(1b/2) expressing Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line at low micromolar concentr...

The nervous system plays an important but poorly understood role in modulating longevity. GABA, a prominent inhibitory neurotransmitter, is best known to regulate nervous system function and behaviour in diverse organisms. Whether GABA signalling affects aging, however, has not been explored. Here we examined mutants lacking each of the major neurotransmitters in C. elegans, and find that defic...