Postmortem increases in GABA receptor binding to membranes of cat central nervous system

GABA receptor binding in fifteen regions of cat central nervous system was investigated immediately postmortem and at twelve, twenty-four, and 72 hours postmortem. In each of the supraspinal areas studied, GABA binding increased with time-after-death. Changes after 24 hours occurred in the cerebellum, the visual cortex, the sensorimotor cortex, and the amygdala where more than a two-fold increase in binding was observed. Increases were also noted in the thalamus, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, and hypothalamus. The results suggest that caution should be exercised in the interpretation of GABA binding data obtained from human brains that have not been treated in a similar postmortem manner.