Immunological detection of glutamate receptor subtypes in human central nervous system

Abstract

Glutamate receptors are the principal excitatory neurotransmitter receptors in the central nervous system and are involved in a number of normal and pathological neuronal processes. Using subunit‐specific antipeptide antibodies developed against the predicted amino acid sequences of several rat glutamate receptor cDNAs, we have identified these proteins in post‐mortem human central nervous system tissue. Immunoblotting of dissected brain regions demonstrates that these receptor proteins are differentially distributed. The ability to identify these proteins in post‐mortem human tissues should allow examination of the changes in levels of receptor subtypes that occur in a variety of neurological and psychiatric diseases.