Taurine activates glycine and GABA receptor currents in anoxia-tolerant painted turtle pyramidal neurons.

Unlike anoxia-intolerant mammals, painted turtles can survive extended periods without oxygen. This is partly accomplished by an anoxia-mediated increase in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) release, which activates GABA receptors and mediates spike arrest in turtle neurons via shunting inhibition. Extracellular taurine levels also increase during anoxia; why this occurs is unknown but it is speculated that glycine and/or GABA receptors are involved.

Phosphorylation of the mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channel occurs independently of PKCε in turtle brain.

Neurons from the western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii) are remarkably resilient to anoxia. This is partly due to a reduction in the permeability of excitatory glutamatergic ion channels, initiated by mitochondrial ATP-sensitive K(+) (mK(+)ATP) channel activation. The aim of this study was to determine if: 1) PKCε, a kinase associated with hypoxic stress tolerance, is more highly expressed in turtle brain than the anoxia-intolerant rat brain; 2) PKCε translocates to the mitochondrial membrane during anoxia; 3) PKCε modulates mK(+)ATP channels at the Thr-224 phosphorylation site on the Kir6.