Ontogeny of amino acids related to excitatory amino acidergic transmission in the rat forebrain.
Developmental changes in the concentration of putative amino acid neurotransmitters were investigated in the forebrain of prenatal and postnatal rats. Glutamate and aspartate, which interact with three-typed agonist sites of excitatory amino acid receptors, decreased until birth and then increased with maturation. Agonists for strychnine-insensitive glycine sites, i.e., glycine, serine and alanine, showed progressive decreases in the postnatal period. Although alanine rapidly decreased in preterm, there was no change in glycine and serine contents in this period. These developmental patterns of the compounds related to EAA transmission differed from those of inhibitory amino acid transmitters. GABA showed a steady increase during ontogeny. Taurine increased until birth and then decreased to the adult level. These results suggested that the ontogenic profile for EAA is different from that for the glycine receptor agonists and that other inhibitory amino acid transmitters develop with patterns different from those of amino acids related to EAAergic transmission.
Shinohara
K
K
Division of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, Tokyo, Japan.
Nishikawa
T
T
Ishii
S
S
Yamazaki
K
K
Takahashi
K
K
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D005333:Fetus / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D017981:Receptors, Neurotransmitter / Q000378:metabolism; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism
D000596:Amino Acids; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D017981:Receptors, Neurotransmitter; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid