Fig. 6

Strychnine reduces extracellular glutamate and GABA concentration and surface expression of GAT3 in the cerebellum of hyperammonemic rats. Extracellular glutamate (a) and GABA (b) levels were measured in the cerebellum by microdialysis in vivo as indicated in the “Methods” section. Strychnine (4 μM), an inhibitor of glycine receptor, was administered (fraction 5–9) though the microdialysis probe in cerebellum in vivo of control and hyperammonemic rats and extracellular glutamate and GABA were measured as described in the “Methods” section. Surface expression of glutamate transporters, GLAST (c) and GLT-1 (d), and GABA transporter GAT3 (e) were analyzed using BS3 cross-linker procedure as described in the “Methods” section in slices from control and hyperammonemic (HA) rats treated or not with strychnine. Values are mean ± SEM of 7 rats per group in a-b and of 8-25 rats per group in c-e. Values significantly different from control rats are indicated by asterisk and from hyperammonemic rats are indicated by “a”. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001; a p < 0.05. Data were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Turkey post hoc (in a-d) and the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunnett’s post hoc test (in e)