Properties of amino acid neurotransmitter receptors of embryonic cortical neurons when activated by exogenous and endogenous agonists.

1. The properties of receptors for amino acid neurotransmitters expressed by developing cortical neurons were studied with the use of whole-cell recording in the intact cerebral cortex of embryonic turtles in vitro. The inhibitory agonist gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and the excitatory agonist glutamate were focally applied to single cells under voltage clamp, and the ionic dependence, voltage dependence, and pharmacological sensitivity of the responses were characterized. The responses mediated by a glutamate receptor subtype, the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, produced by glutamate and by evoked release of an endogenous excitatory agonist, were compared further. Fluctuation analysis was used to characterize the properties of the NMDA channels and the mechanism of action of receptor antagonists. 2. When postmitotic neurons first appeared at stage 15, all neurons tested responded to GABA with a current that reversed at the equilibrium potential for chloride ions and that was sensitive to the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline methiodide (BMI). As development proceeded, an increasing proportion of neurons also responded with a BMI-insensitive current that reversed near the equilibrium potential for potassium ions. This current was blocked by the GABAB receptor antagonist 3-amino-2-propyl phosponic acid (phaclofen). The GABAB agonist baclofen, however, failed to produce a detectable postsynaptic current. 3. Neurons at stage 15 showed a biphasic response to glutamate that reversed at the equilibrium potential for cations. All neurons tested showed a slow, sustained response associated with an increase in current variance compared with background, and, as development proceeded, an increasing proportion also exhibited a fast, transient response. Both fast and slow responses varied linearly with voltage in the absence of Mg2+ ions, but the addition of Mg2+ ions to the bathing medium attenuated the slow response at hyperpolarized potentials. As a result, the current-voltage relation of the slow response in the presence of Mg2+ ions exhibited a region of negative slope conductance, like that of currents mediated by NMDA receptors. 4. The fast and slow responses to glutamate differed in their pharmacological sensitivity. The fast responses were sensitive to the non-NMDA receptor antagonist 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX), whereas the slow responses were sensitive to the NMDA receptor antagonist D(-)-2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate (D-APV). 5. When cells were held at -70 mV, glutamate evoked a fluctuating current consisting of channel currents with a mean open time, tau, of 4.42 +/- 0.47 (SE) ms in early postmitotic neurons at stage 15 and 4.99 +/- 0.38 ms at stages 17-20.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)