Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tang, Zheng-Quan
• Lu, Yun-Gang
• Huang, Yi-Na
• Chen, Lin

Titel

Cross-talk pattern between GABAA- and glycine-receptors in CNS neurons is shaped by their relative expression levels

Ist Teil von

• Brain research, 2020-12, Vol.1748, p.147071-147071, Article 147071

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •Activation of GlyRs and GABAARs cross-inhibited symmetrically in brainstem neurons.•GlyRs-GABAARs cross-talk pattern was region-specifically expressed in the CNS.•GlyRs-GABAARs cross-talk pattern was altered by overexpression of GlyRs.•Activation of GlyRs constrained the strength of GABAergic synapses. GABAA receptors (GABAARs) and glycine receptors (GlyRs) are two principal inhibitory chloride ion channels in the central nervous system. The two receptors do not function independently but cross-talk to each other, i.e., the activation of one receptor would inhibit the other. This cross-talk is present in different patterns across various regions in the central nervous system; however, the factor that determines these patterns is not understood. Here, we show that the pattern of cross-talk between the two receptors is shaped by their relative expression level in a neuron: a higher expression level correlates with louder talk. In line with a tendency of decrease in expression level of GlyRs and increase in expression level of GABAARs from the spinal cord, the brainstem to the neocortex, GlyRs talked much louder (i.e. produced greater inhibition) than GABAARs (one-way pattern) in spinal cord neurons, about equally loud as GABAARs (symmetric pattern) in inferior colliculus neurons and less loud (i.e. less inhibition) than GABAARs (asymmetric pattern) in auditory cortex neurons. Overexpression of GlyRs in inferior colliculus neurons produced an asymmetric pattern that should otherwise have been observed in spinal cord neurons. These expression level-dependent patterns of cross-talk between the two receptors may suggest how the central nervous system uses an alternative mechanism to maintain a delicate level of inhibition through adjusting the proportion of the two receptors in a neuron along its pathway.