Postnatal development of detergent-insoluble properties of NMDA and AMPA receptor subunits in the rat brain synaptic...

We investigated the developmental changes of detergent-insoluble characteristics of NMDA and AMPA receptor subunits in the synaptic membranes prepared from the rat cerebral cortex. At postnatal day (PND) 1, the majority of NMDAR1 and NMDAR2B subunits of NMDA receptors in the synaptic membranes were insoluble to the treatment of 1% Triton X-100. The detergent-insoluble properties of both subunits were not significantly changed during postnatal development. At PND 1, about 45% of GluR1 and 10% of GluR2/3 subunits of AMPA receptors in the synaptic membrane were insoluble to Triton X-100, whereas 70% of GluR1 and 56% of GluR2/3 subunits were insoluble at PND 22. These findings indicate that the postsynaptic clustering of NMDA and AMPA receptors during development seems to be differentially regulated in vivo.