The current study examined the effects of systemic administration of a GABA agonist [midazolam (MDZ)] and a GABA antagonist (bicuculline) on fear responding after brief CS exposure, a procedure thought to involve memory reconsolidation. Using a contextual fear-conditioning paradigm, rats were initially given two context-shock training trials, followed 24 hrs later by a 90-s context exposure (re...

system (1). The studies of Killam (2) and Killam and Bain (3), whieh used convulsant hydrazides and demonstrated thatr GABA has an inhibitory function in the CNS, suggested a role for GABA in neurotoxicology. There are two types of GABA receptors, GABIVA and GABAB, The GABAA receptor is a membrane bound eomplex consisting of at least three binding sites for GABA, benzodiazepines, the barbiturat...

The whole-cell patch-clamp method was used to study the development of functional GABA receptors in cortical neurons dissociated from embryonic turtles. GABA elicited an increase in membrane conductance, even from cells obtained from the earliest stages of corticogenesis. The GABA-mediated conductance had a mean value 7.4 times greater than membrane 'leak' conductance and increased with develop...

We describe the selective photorelease of gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) with a novel caged-GABA compound that uses a ruthenium complex as photosensor. This compound ("RuBi-GABA") can be excited with visible wavelengths, providing greater tissue penetration, less photo-toxicity, and faster photorelease kinetics than currently used UV light-sensitive caged compounds. Using pyramidal neurons fro...

Objective(s) In this study we investigated the expression of GABAA receptor subunits during brain development. These receptors may change in the embryonic chick forebrain. Materials and Methodes The expression levels of four types of GABAA receptor gamma subunits (γ1, γ2, γ3 and γ4) were quantified in the embryonic chick forebrain at 32 hr, 3, 7, 14, and 20 days of incubation and day one aft...

Photoactivatable "caged" neurotransmitters allow optical control of neural tissue with high spatial and temporal precision. However, the development of caged versions of the chief vertebrate inhibitory neurotransmitter, γ-amino butyric acid (GABA), has been limited by the propensity of caged GABAs to interact with GABA receptors. We describe herein the synthesis and application of a practically...

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...

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in brain. The fast inhibitory effect of GABA is mediated through the GABA(A) receptor, a postsynaptic ligand-gated chloride channel. We propose that GABA can act as a ligand chaperone in the early secretory pathway to facilitate GABA(A) receptor cell surface expression. Forty-two hours of GABA treatment increased the surf...

GABA-B receptor agonist SKF97541 exhibits age-dependent anticonvulsant and proconvulsant actions in developing rats. It suppressed tonic phase of generalized seizures induced by pentetrazol in 7-, 12- and 18-day-old rats and increased their latency in 7- and 12-day-old animals. Other results in 18-day-old animals are not so clear. SKF97541 blocked the appearance of minimal clonic seizures, but ...