Postsynaptic fall in intracellular pH induced by GABA-activated bicarbonate conductance
Abstract
Synaptic inhibition mediated by γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is known to involve opening of receptor-gated chloride channels1-3. Recent evidence indicates that these channels also show a significant permeability to the physiologically important bicarbonate anion4. In all the excitable cells studied to date, the intracellular pH (pHi) is higher than would be predicted from a passive distribution of H+ ions5-9, and consequently there is an outwardly directed electrochemical driving force for HCO3 -. In the presence of CO2/HCO3 - therefore, activation of GABA-gated channels could give rise to a significant efflux of bicarbonate, leading to a fall in postsynaptic pHi. We have examined the influence of GABA on pHi in crayfish skeletal muscle and we find that in the presence of CO2, GABA induces a dramatic fall in pHi which is coupled to an alkalosis at the extracellular surface. This fall in pHi and the extracellular alkalosis are attributable to a GABA-activated, picrotoxin-sensitive HCO3 --conductance. In view of the sensitivity of ion channels10 and intracellular ion concentrations5-9 to changes in pHi, a GABA-induced postsynaptic acidosis could prove to be important in the modulation of inhibitory transmission.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- November 1987
- DOI:
- 10.1038/330163a0
- Bibcode:
- 1987Natur.330..163K