GABA and glycine may share the same conductance channel on cultured mammalian neurones

• DOI: 10.1038/277234a0
• Publication Date: 2005-08-02T12:57:54Z
• Authors: JEFFERY L. BARKER; ROBERT N. MCBURNEY
• Keywords: Kinetics; Mice; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Spinal Cord; Electric Conductivity; Glycine; Animals; Cells, Cultured; Ion Channels; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; Membrane Potentials

ANALYSIS of conductance fluctuations induced during application of putative neurotransmitters to postsynaptic membranes has led to estimates of the unitary conductance and kinetics of the underlying ionic channels. Estimates have been made for a variety of receptor-coupled channels activated on invertebrate and vertebrate membranes (for review see ref. 1). Recently we have applied the technique to mouse spinal neurones grown in tissue culture and have estimated the conductance and duration of the single channel events underlying responses to the putative inhibitory transmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)2. We have extended our studies to another inhibitory transmitter, glycine, and report here that channels activated by glycine have properties distinctly different from those activated by GABA and that the amino acid receptors may share a conductance mechanism.