Family, twin, and adoption studies have demonstrated that genes play an important role in the development of alcoholism. We investigated the association between alcoholism and the genetic polymorphisms of the GABAA receptor genes on chromosome 5q33-34 in Korean population. The genotype of the GABAA receptor gene polymorphisms were determined by performing polymerase chain reaction genotyping fo...

Propofol as an agonist of GABAA receptor has a rewarding and discriminative stimulus effect. However, which subtype of the GABAA receptor is involved in the discriminative stimulus effects of propofol is still not clear. We observed the effects of an agonist or an antagonist of the subtype-selective GABAA receptor on discriminative stimulus effects of propofol. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were tra...

Over the last several years, evidence has accumulated that the GABAA receptor is compromised in animal models for fragile X syndrome (FXS), a common hereditary form of intellectual disability. In mouse and fly models, agonists of the GABAA receptor were able to rescue specific consequences of the fragile X mutation. Here, we imaged and quantified GABAA receptors in vivo in brain of fragile X pa...

Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) belong to the family of the epithelial sodium channel/degenerin (ENaC/DEG) and are activated by extracellular protons. They are widely distributed within both the central and peripheral nervous systems. ASICs were modified by the activation of γ-aminobutyric acid receptors (GABAA), a ligand-gated chloride channels, in hippocampal neurons. In contrast, the activ...

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 investigated the GABAA receptor mRNA composition in 13 cell lines, using 13 subunit-specific oligo-primers (alpha 1-6, beta 1-3, gamma 1-3, and delta) and reverse transcriptase PCR amplification. Cell lines (B35, B65, B103, B104, RINm5F, Rat1, PC12, C6, C17, C27, beta TC3, NB41A3, AtT-20), derived from diverse tissue origins, were investigated in order to identify homogeneous cellular s...

...........................................................................................viii Abbreviations used in text....................................................................xi CHAPTER 1: General Introduction.........................................................1 I. Cardiac Arrest and Cerebral Ischemia............................................1 II. The Cerebellum and Purkin...

A developmental "switch" in chloride transporters occurs in most neurons resulting in GABAA mediated hyperpolarization in the adult. However, several neuronal cell subtypes maintain primarily depolarizing responses to GABAA receptor activation. Among this group are gonadotropin-releasing hormone-1 (GnRH) neurons, which control puberty and reproduction. NKCC1 is the primary chloride accumulator ...

background: γ-aminobutyric acid (gaba) is considered to be the predominant inhibitory neurotransmitter in mammalian central nervous systems (cns). there are two major classes of gaba receptors: gabaars and gababrs. the gabaa receptor is derived from various subunits such as alpha1-alpha 6, beta1-beta 3, gamma1-gamma 4, delta, epsilon, pi, and rho1-3. intensive research has been performed to un...

Modulatory agents of gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptors have been widely used for more than 40 years to treat anxiety, epilepsy, and sleep disorders; these drugs are generally safe, well tolerated, and effective. Recently, there has been a substantial growth in understanding of the mechanism of action of these drugs, which act at different sites on GABAA receptors. A variety of GA...