Lee S, Yoon BE, Berglund K, Oh SJ, Park H, Shin HS, Augustine GJ, Lee CJ.
Channel-mediated tonic GABA release from glia.
Science. 2010 Nov 5;330(6005):790-6.
PubMed.
These are controversial findings and need corroboration. It would be interesting to confirm that the Bestrophin 1 (Best1) anion channel purported to release GABA from glia is expressed in these cells. The authors did not carry out in situ hybridization to show that Best1 mRNA is present by the Bergmann glial cells, but relied on immunohistochemistry. Immunostaining is subject to cross-reaction that can yield spurious results, and they did not show that the antibody used did not stain Best1 knockout brain. Also, the authors do not suggest a synthetic pathway to show that glia can produce GABA, as opposed to all the previous literature demonstrating that glia take up GABA and inactivate it. Furthermore, all our exon gene profiles of brain astrocytes show that they do not make Best1 (see Cahoy et al., 2008).
References:
Cahoy JD, Emery B, Kaushal A, Foo LC, Zamanian JL, Christopherson KS, Xing Y, Lubischer JL, Krieg PA, Krupenko SA, Thompson WJ, Barres BA.
A transcriptome database for astrocytes, neurons, and oligodendrocytes: a new resource for understanding brain development and function.
J Neurosci. 2008 Jan 2;28(1):264-78.
PubMed.
Comments
These are controversial findings and need corroboration. It would be interesting to confirm that the Bestrophin 1 (Best1) anion channel purported to release GABA from glia is expressed in these cells. The authors did not carry out in situ hybridization to show that Best1 mRNA is present by the Bergmann glial cells, but relied on immunohistochemistry. Immunostaining is subject to cross-reaction that can yield spurious results, and they did not show that the antibody used did not stain Best1 knockout brain. Also, the authors do not suggest a synthetic pathway to show that glia can produce GABA, as opposed to all the previous literature demonstrating that glia take up GABA and inactivate it. Furthermore, all our exon gene profiles of brain astrocytes show that they do not make Best1 (see Cahoy et al., 2008).
References:
Cahoy JD, Emery B, Kaushal A, Foo LC, Zamanian JL, Christopherson KS, Xing Y, Lubischer JL, Krieg PA, Krupenko SA, Thompson WJ, Barres BA. A transcriptome database for astrocytes, neurons, and oligodendrocytes: a new resource for understanding brain development and function. J Neurosci. 2008 Jan 2;28(1):264-78. PubMed.
Make a Comment
To make a comment you must login or register.