Glial uptake system of GABA distinct from that of taurine in the bullfrog sympathetic ganglia.

The kinetics and specificity of GABA and taurine uptake were studied in the bullfrog sympathetic ganglia. GABA uptake system consisted of simple saturable component and taurine uptake system consisted of two saturable components exclusive of non-saturable influx. Taurine unaffected GABA uptake while GABA inhibited taurine uptake competitively with the Ki/Km ratio of 38. GABA (5.14 microM) uptake was inhibited by delta- aminovaleric acid and slightly by 2,4-diaminobutyric acid (5 mM, each) among ten structural analogs. Taurine uptake under high-affinity conditions was most strongly suppressed by hypotaurine and beta-alanine competitively with the Ki/Km ratio of 1.0 and 1.9, respectively. Autoradiography showed that glial cells were heavily labeled by both [3H]GABA and [3H]taurine. These results suggest that GABA is transported by a highly specific carrier system distinct from the taurine carrier and that taurine, hypotaurine, and beta-alanine may share the same high-affinity carrier system in the glial cells of the bullfrog sympathetic ganglia.