Aspartate and glutamate as possible transmitters of excitatory hippocampal afferents

• DOI: 10.1038/260538a0
• Publication Date: 2005-08-03T17:18:51Z
• Authors: J. VICTOR NADLER; KENNETH W. VACA; W. FROST WHITE; GARY S. LYNCH; CARL W. COTMAN
• Keywords: Aspartic Acid; Neurotransmitter Agents; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Glutamates; Animals; Calcium; In Vitro Techniques; Hippocampus; Rats

IN the rat hippocampal formation, the major excitatory inputs possess a remarkable degree of physiological and morphological plasticity. Long lasting potentiation has been reported1–3 and, at least in the dentate gyrus, the synaptic loss consequent on removal of one afferent is compensated by formation of additional synapses by intact afferents4,5. These phenomena must involve profound alterations of synaptic biochemistry, but the requisite biochemical studies cannot be performed until the transmitters used by these inputs are known.