Spinal cord cultured neurons: an in vitro model to study GABA synaptic pharmacology

In summary, spinal cord cultured neurons provide an in vitro model for studying GABA synaptic pharmacology. GABAA agonists stimulate 36Cl-influx in these cells in a concentration-dependent manner. The enhancing effect of GABA is potentiated by BZ agonists, inhibited by GABA antagonists, and attenuated by the inverse agonist beta-carboline, DMCM. These cells also exhibit the specific binding of [3H]flunitrazepam with a pharmacological specificity of the central BZ receptors. Finally, BZ receptors are coupled to GABA, barbiturate, and picrotoxin sites in these cells, as indicated by allosteric interactions both by binding and 36Cl-influx assay.