How GABA generates depolarization.

摘要

In a masterful, insightful and influential paper published in The Journal of Physiology in 1989, Ben-Ari, Cherubini, Corradetti and Giarsa understood for the first time the basis of the depolarizing action of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in immature neurons, suggesting that it was due to an elevated level of intra-cellular chloride ions and efflux through chloride-permeable channels (Ben-Ari et al. 1989). GABA had long been recognized as an inhibitory neurotransmitter that hyper-polarizes mature neurons. However Obata and his colleagues (Obata et al. 1978) suggested that there is a developmentally regulated shift in the action of GABA, and Mueller et al. (1984) reported more negative reversal potentials for GABA in mature than in immature neurons.