GABA in the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus and its role in diurnal rhythmicity

Shlomo Wagner (), Mona Castel, Harold Gainer and Yosef Yarom
Additional contact information
Shlomo Wagner: Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University
Mona Castel: *Cell and Animal Biology, Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University
Harold Gainer: †Laboratory of Neurochemistry, National Institutes of Health, NINDS
Yosef Yarom: Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University

Nature, 1997, vol. 387, issue 6633, 598-603

Abstract: Abstract Mammals manifest circadian behaviour timed by an endogenous clock in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)1. Considerable progress has been made in identifying the molecular basis of the circadian clock2,3, but the mechanisms by which it is translated into cyclic firing activity, high during the day and low at night, are still poorly understood. GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid), a common inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, is particularly densely distributed within the SCN, where it is located in the majority of neuronal somata4,5 and synaptic terminals6,7. Using an in vitro brain-slice technique, we have now studied the effect of bath-applied GABA on adult SCN neurons at various times of the day. We find that GABA acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter at night, decreasing the firing frequency; but during the day GABA acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter, increasing the firing frequency. We show that this dual effect, which is mediated by GABAA receptors, may be attributed to an oscillation in intracellular chloride concentration. A likely explanation is that the amplitude of the oscillation in firing rate, displayed by individual neurons, is amplified by the dual effect of GABA in the SCN's GABAergic network.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/42468 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:387:y:1997:i:6633:d:10.1038_42468

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/42468

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().