Coexistence of carriers for dopamine and GABA uptake on a same nerve terminal in the rat brain

Abstract

1 The ability of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to affect the release of [³H]-dopamine in rat brain synaptosomes prepared from corpus striatum, frontal cortex and hypothalamus and prelabelled with the radioactive catecholamine in the presence of desipramine was examined. 2 GABA (10–300 μm) increased in a concentration-dependent way the basal release of [³H]-dopamine from striatum and cortical synaptosomes; however, its effect was much less pronounced in hypothalamic nerve terminals. 2,4-Diaminobutyric acid (DABA) mimicked GABA although less potently. 3 Neutral amino acids such as leucine, valine or α-aminoisobutyric acid (100–300 μm) did not affect or increased minimally the release of [³H]-dopamine. 4 The GABA-induced [³H]-dopamine release was not prevented by the GABA_A-receptor antagonists, bicuculline or picrotoxin. The GABA_A-receptor agonist, muscimol (10–300 μm), displayed only a very weak, not significant, enhancing effect on [³H]-dopamine release. The GABA_B-receptor agonist (—)- baclofen (100 or 300 μm) had no effect. 5 Three novel and selective inhibitors of GABA uptake, N-(4,4-diphenyl-3-butenyl)-nipecotic acid (SK&F 89976A), N-(4,4-diphenyl-3-butenyl)-guvacine (SK&F 100330A) and N-(4,4-diphenyl-3-butenyl)-homo-β-proline (SK&F 100561) potently counteracted the enhancing effect of GABA on [³H]-dopamine release. Nipecotic acid also reduced the effect of GABA. 6 It is concluded that carriers for the uptake of dopamine and GABA may coexist on the same nerve terminal in the rat brain.