Neuroscience letters
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Neuroscience letters · Feb 1995
Quantitative evaluation of calcitonin gene-related peptide and substance P levels in rat spinal cord following peripheral nerve injury.
Levels of calcitonin gene-related peptide immunoreactivity (CGRP-ir) and substance P immunoreactivity (SP-ir) in the lumbar dorsal spinal cord of rats with either sciatic nerve transection or chronic constriction injury (CCI) were measured using radioimmunoassay. Significant decreases in CGRP-ir and SP-ir occurred in the ipsilateral spinal cord at 10 and 31 days after nerve transection. ⋯ Transection of the sciatic nerve produced greater decreases in peptide levels than did the CCI. Changes in spinal levels of these peptides may be involved in the appearance of neuropathic signs associated with nerve injury.
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Neuroscience letters · Feb 1995
Etomidate potentiation of GABAA receptor gated current depends on the subunit composition.
The role of the gamma 2 subunit in etomidate potentiation of GABAA receptor-gated chloride current was studied by whole cell patch clamp experiments on H293 cells expressing GABAA receptors. The GABAA receptor subunits alpha 1 beta 1 with or without the gamma 2 subunit expressed well, with an overall peak current of 157 +/- 42 pA/pF. ⋯ This gamma 2 subunit-dependent prolongation of the current time course was not blocked by the benzodiazepine receptor antagonist flumazenil. These results show that etomidate, an imidazole general anesthetic, interacts with the GABAA receptor in a gamma 2 subunit-dependent manner.