Localization of elevated glutaminase immunoreactivity in small DRG neurons

Glutamate has long been considered to be a neurotransmitter candidate in vertebrate spinal sensory nerve cells. We report here the first immunohistochemical evidence in support of this hypothesis. We find that up to 30% of the moderately small dorsal root ganglion neurons in the rat contain elevated levels of glutaminase immunoreactivity. This enzyme, which mediates the synthesis of glutamate from glutamine, is not found at these high levels in large diameter neurons of the same ganglia. In contrast, another enzyme associated with glutamate metabolism, aspartate aminotransferase, is rather uniformly distributed within neurons of the sensory ganglia. These data define a subpopulation of sensory neurons which appear to contain an elevated capacity to synthesize glutamate through the glutamine cycle and suggest that glutaminase immunoreactivity may be an indicator of glutamatergic function in some nerve cells.