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AMPA‐Selective glutamate receptor subunits in astroglial cultures
Author(s) -
Condorelli D. F.,
Dell'Albani P.,
Corsaro M.,
Barresi V.,
Stella A. M. Giuffrida
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of neuroscience research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.72
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1097-4547
pISSN - 0360-4012
DOI - 10.1002/jnr.490360312
Subject(s) - ampa receptor , glial fibrillary acidic protein , ionotropic effect , protein subunit , glutamate receptor , biology , brainstem , microbiology and biotechnology , receptor , chemistry , biochemistry , neuroscience , gene , immunohistochemistry , immunology
We analysed AMPA ionotropic receptor subunits at the mRNA level (GluR‐1 to ‐4) and at the protein level (GluR‐1 and GluR‐2/3/4C) in “primary astroglial cultures” (non‐neuronal cell cultures highly enriched in glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP] positive cells) prepared from newborn rat cerebral hemispheres, cerebral cortex, hippocamps, and striatum and in “brain non‐neuronal cell cultures” (low percentage of GFAP positive cells) prepared from cerebellum, brainstem, mesencephalon, and hypothalamus. For comparison, we also determined ampa subunit mRNA and protein levels in different brain regions. By Northern blot analysis mRNAs for the AMPA receptor subunits (glur‐1,‐2,‐3,‐4) were detected in primary rat cerebral hemispheres astroglial cultures. Immunoblotting analysis with anti‐GluR‐1 and anti GluR‐2/3/4C polyclonal antibodies confirmed the presence of low leve of immunoreactive proteins of the same size of those identifice in vivo as GluR subunits. Expression of GluR genes varied depending on the brain area used as starting material for the preparation of the cultures: GluR‐1, ‐2, and ‐3 were mailly expressed in cortical cultures, while GluR‐4 expression predominated in brainstem derived cultures. Interestingly this pattern of expression correlates with that observed in the intact brain, where high levels of GluR‐4 mRNA and low levels of the other GluR subunits were found in the brainstem. In conclusion our results confirm the existence of glutmate ionotropic receptors of the AMPA type in primary astroglial cultrues and suggest that GluR‐4 is the main AMPA receptor subunit expressed in non neuronal cells of the central nervous system. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.