Developmental stability of taurine's activation on glycine receptors in cultured neurons of rat auditory cortex.
Taurine is an endogenous amino acid that can activate glycine and/or gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA(A)) receptors in the central nervous system. During natural development, taurine's receptor target undergoes a shift from glycine receptors to GABA(A) receptors in cortical neurons. Here, we demonstrate that taurine's receptor target in cortical neurons remains stable during in vitro development. With whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, we found that taurine always activated glycine receptors, rather than GABA(A) receptors, in neurons of rat auditory cortex cultured for 5-22 days. Our results suggest that the functional sensitivity of glycine and GABA(A) receptors to taurine is critically regulated by their developmental environments.
Tang
Zheng-Quan
ZQ
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.
Lu
Yun-Gang
YG
Chen
Lin
L
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A / Q000378:metabolism; D018009:Receptors, Glycine / Q000378:metabolism*; D013654:Taurine / Q000378:metabolism*
D011963:Receptors, GABA-A; D018009:Receptors, Glycine; D013654:Taurine