The effect of lead on GABAB binding was studied on membranes obtained from acute and chronically lead-treated rats. Acute lead treatment reduced both GABAB affinity (KD) by about 30% and density of receptor (Bmax) by about 15%. On the contrary chronic lead treatment increased receptor capacity by about 20% in spite of decreased receptor affinity by 25%. Both acute and chronic lead treatment shi...

The inhibitory neurotransmitter, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), activates a variety of receptors in all areas of the central nervous system (CNS). GABA acts at inhibitory synapses in the brain by binding to specific transmembrane receptors in the plasma membrane of both pre and postsynaptic neuronal processes. There are three classes of GABA receptors. GABAA and GABAC receptors are ionotropic in n...

Ionotropic receptors are tightly regulated by second messenger systems and are often present along with their metabotropic counterparts on a neuron's plasma membrane. This leads to the hypothesis that the two receptor subtypes can interact, and indeed this has been observed in excitatory glutamate and inhibitory GABA receptors. In both systems the metabotropic pathway augments the ionotropic re...

Neurogliaform cells in the rat elicit combined GABAA and GABAB receptor-mediated postsynaptic responses on cortical pyramidal cells and establish electrical synapses with various interneuron types. However, the involvement of GABAB receptors in postsynaptic effects of neurogliaform cells on other GABAergic interneurons is not clear. We measured the postsynaptic effects of neurogliaform cells in...

We have used double-label in situ hybridization techniques to examine the cellular localization of GABAB receptor mRNA in relation to serotonin transporter mRNA and glutamic acid decarboxylase mRNA in the rat dorsal raphe, median raphe and raphe magnus nuclei. The degree of cellular co-localization of these markers notably varied among the different nuclei. In the dorsal raphe, cell bodies show...

In the olfactory pathway of Drosophila, a GABAB receptor mediated presynaptic gain control mechanism at the first synapse between olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and projection neurons has been suggested to play a critical role in setting the sensitivity and detection range of the sensory system. To approach the question if such a mechanism may be realized in the pheromone recognition system o...

γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, and disturbances in the GABAergic system have been implicated in numerous neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. The GABAB receptor is a heterodimeric class C G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) consisting of GABAB1a/b and GABAB2 subunits. Two GABAB receptor ligand binding sites have been descri...

In the present study, the effect of GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) receptor agonists and antagonists on morphine-induced antinociception was investigated in formalin test in rats. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of different doses of morphine (1, 3, 6 and 9 mg/kg) and intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of different doses of muscimol (0.5, 1 and 2 g/rat) or baclofen (0.25, 0.5 and 1 g/rat) ...