Glutamate Receptors in Cultures of Mouse Hippocampus Studied with Fast Applications of Agonists, Modulators and Drugs

Abstract

The study of excitatory synaptic transmission between nerve cells in mammalian brain slice preparations, and the use of binding assays to measure agonist and antagonist affinity, have suggested at least two subtypes of glutamate receptor channel complex. These have been named after the agonists with which they were first characterized, N-methylD-aspartic acid (NMDA) and quisqualic acid (for review see Watkins and Olverman, 1987; Mayer and Westbrook, 1987a). Although cultures of embryonic CNS have the disadvantage that neurons may express less mature forms of ion channel gene products, the high accessibility offered by dissociated cell preparations does allow experiments not possible with brain slices. In particular, whole cell recording and the use of fast perfusion techniques in CNS cultures greatly facilitates the study of receptor kinetics and ligand-gated ion channels; experiments of this type are not possible in intact preparations. Patch clamp techniques have now been applied to both brain slices (Edwards et al., 1989) and to isolated adult cells (Kiskin et al., 1986), but the success rate with these preparations is usually lower than with culture preparations, and the intact nature of slice preparations still hinders the use of rapid perfusion techniques.