In vitro: |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,2000 Apr 25;97(9):4926-31. | D-serine is an endogenous ligand for the glycine site of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor.[Pubmed: 10781100] | Functional activity of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors requires both glutamate binding and the binding of an endogenous coagonist that has been presumed to be glycine, although D-serine is a more potent agonist. Localizations of D-serine and it biosynthetic enzyme serine racemase approximate the distribution of NMDA receptors more closely than glycine.
METHODS AND RESULTS:
We now show that selective degradation of D-serine with D-amino acid oxidase greatly attenuates NMDA receptor-mediated neurotransmission as assessed by using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings or indirectly by using biochemical assays of the sequelae of NMDA receptor-mediated calcium flux. The inhibitory effects of the enzyme are fully reversed by exogenously applied D-serine, which by itself did not potentiate NMDA receptor-mediated synaptic responses.
CONCLUSIONS:
Thus, D-serine is an endogenous modulator of the glycine site of NMDA receptors and fully occupies this site at some functional synapses. | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,1995 Apr 25;92(9):3948-52. | D-serine, an endogenous synaptic modulator: localization to astrocytes and glutamate-stimulated release.[Pubmed: 7732010] | METHODS AND RESULTS:
Using an antibody highly specific for D-serine conjugated to glutaraldehyde, we have localized endogenous D-serine in rat brain. Highest levels of D-serine immunoreactivity occur in the gray matter of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, anterior olfactory nucleus, olfactory tubercle, and amygdala. Localizations of D-serine immunoreactivity correlate closely with those of D-serine binding to the glycine modulatory site of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor as visualized by autoradiography and are inversely correlated to the presence of D-amino acid oxidase. D-Serine is enriched in process-bearing glial cells in neuropil with the morphology of protoplasmic astrocytes. In glial cultures of rat cerebral cortex, D-serine is enriched in type 2 astrocytes.
CONCLUSIONS:
The release of D-serine from these cultures is stimulated by agonists of non-NMDA glutamate receptors, suggesting a mechanism by which astrocyte-derived D-serine could modulate neurotransmission. D-Serine appears to be the endogenous ligand for the glycine site of NMDA receptors. |
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