The effect of GABA on lumbar terminations of rubrospinal neurons in the cat spinal cord

Although GABA and piperidine-4-sulphonic acid depolarize I a afferent terminations in the cat spinal cord by activation of bicuculline-sensitive GABA receptors, no evidence was obtained for a bicuculline-sensitive alteration by either gabamimetic of the electrical threshold of rubrospinal terminations in the spinal intermediate nucleus. The terminal axonal arborizations in the spinal cord of neurons in the red nucleus thus do not have GABA receptors similar to those on the cell bodies. The results are discussed in relation to the depolarizing action of GABA on some central neurons, and on neurons with peripheral cell bodies, and to probable differences in the intracellular chloride content of neurons having peripheral or central cell bodies, and thus of different embryological origin. A presynaptic depolarizing inhibitory process mediated by GABA appears to be confined to the terminals of primary afferent fibres in the mammalian central nervous system.