Ontogenetic development of glutamate and GABA metabolizing enzymes in cultured cerebral cortex interneurons and in cerebral cortex in vivo

O M Larsson; J Drejer; E Kvamme; G Svenneby; L Hertz; A Schousboe

doi:10.1016/0736-5748(85)90008-5

Ontogenetic development of glutamate and GABA metabolizing enzymes in cultured cerebral cortex interneurons and in cerebral cortex in vivo

Int J Dev Neurosci. 1985;3(2):177-85. doi: 10.1016/0736-5748(85)90008-5.

Authors

O M Larsson¹, J Drejer², E Kvamme³, G Svenneby³, L Hertz⁴, A Schousboe²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nuclear Medicine, State University Hospital, DK-2100 Copenhagen Denmark.
² Department of Biochemistry A, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2200 Copenhagen, Denmark.
³ Neurochemical Laboratory, University of Oslo, Preclinical Medicine, Blindern, Oslo 3, Norway.
⁴ Department of Pharmacology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N OWO, Canada.

PMID: 24874599
DOI: 10.1016/0736-5748(85)90008-5

Abstract

The development of the enzymes phosphate activated glutaminase (PAG), glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH), glutamic-oxaloacetic-transaminase (GOT), glutamine synthetase (GS), GABA-transaminase (GABA-T) and ornithine-δ-aminotransferase (Orn-T) was followed in mouse cerebral cortex in vivo and in cultured mouse cerebral cortex interneurons. It was found that GLDH, GOT and Orn-T exhibited an enhanced developmental pattern in the cultured neurons compared to cerebral cortex. The activities of PAG and GABA-T developed in parallel in vivo and in culture but the activity of GS remained low in the cultured neurons compared to the increasing activity of this enzyme found in vivo. Compared to cerebral cortex the cultured neurons exhibited higher activities of PAG, GLDH and Orn-T, whereas the activities of GABA-T and GOT were lower in the cultured cells. The activity of GS in the cultured neurons was only 5-10% of the activity in cerebral cortex in vivo. It is concluded that neurons from cerebral cortex represent a reliable model system by which the metabolism and function of GABAergic neurons can be conveniently studied in a physiologically meaningful way.