Development of Cortical Pyramidal Cell and Interneuronal Dendrites: a Role for Kainate Receptor Subunits and NETO1.

During neuronal development, AMPA receptors (AMPARs) and NMDA receptors (NMDARs) are important for neuronal differentiation. Kainate receptors (KARs) are closely related to AMPARs and involved in the regulation of cortical network activity. However, their role for neurite growth and differentiation of cortical neurons is unclear.

Trafficking of kainate receptors.

Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) mediate the vast majority of excitatory neurotransmission in the central nervous system of vertebrates. In the protein family of iGluRs, kainate receptors (KARs) comprise the probably least well understood receptor class. Although KARs act as key players in the regulation of synaptic network activity, many properties and functions of these proteins remain elusive until now.

Auxiliary subunits: shepherding AMPA receptors to the plasma membrane.

Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) are tetrameric ligand-gated cation channels that mediate excitatory signal transmission in the central nervous system (CNS) of vertebrates. The members of the iGluR subfamily of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptors (AMPARs) mediate most of the fast excitatory signal transmission, and their abundance in the postsynaptic membrane is a major determinant of the strength of excitatory synapses. Therefore, regulation of AMPAR trafficking to the postsynaptic membrane is an important constituent of mechanisms involved in learning and memory formation, such as long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD).

Undifferentiated embryonic stem cells express ionotropic glutamate receptor mRNAs.

Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) do not only mediate the majority of excitatory neurotransmission in the vertebrate CNS, but also modulate pre- and postnatal neurogenesis. Most of the studies on the developmental role of iGluRs are performed on neural progenitors and neural stem cells (NSCs). We took a step back in our study by examining the role of iGluRs in the earliest possible cell type, embryonic stem cells (ESCs), by looking at the mRNA expression of the major iGluR subfamilies in undifferentiated mouse ESCs.

Functional excitatory GABAA receptors precede ionotropic glutamate receptors in radial glia-like neural stem cells.

The involvement of neurotransmission in neuronal development is a generally accepted concept. Nevertheless, the precise regulation of neurotransmitter receptor expression is still unclear. To investigate the expression profiles of the most important ionotropic neurotransmitter receptors, namely GABA(A) receptors (GABA(A)Rs), NMDA receptors (NMDARs), and AMPA receptors (AMPARs), quantitative RT-PCR, immunoblot analysis and patch clamp studies were performed in in vitro-generated neural stem cells (NSCs).