ISSN:
1432-1106
Keywords:
Glutamate binding sites
;
Autoradiography
;
Vestibular nuclei
;
Rat
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Summary Quantitative autoradiography has been used to characterize l-[3H] glutamate binding sites and to describe their distribution in frozen sections of rat vestibular nuclei. Scatchard plots and Hill coefficients of glutamate binding suggest that glutamate interacts with a single population of sites having a KD of about 126 nM and a capacity of 2.5 pmol/mg of protein. Although the level of glutamate binding was not very high compared to the highest levels described for some other brain regions, it was nonetheless substantial. The sites were distributed unevenly in the four vestibular nuclei and their distribution correlated well with the projection areas of the vestibular nerve, which has been described as a glutamate-mediated pathway. The highest numbers of glutamate binding sites were observed in the medial vestibular nuclei. This technique provides a very sensitive assay for characterizing the pharmacological subtypes of glutamate binding in the vestibular nuclei and for analyzing changes in these sites during development or after deafferentation of the vestibular nuclei.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00248920
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