Neuron
Volume 1, Issue 9, November 1988, Pages 847-852
Journal home page for Neuron

Electrophysiology of a chick neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expressed in xenopus oocytes after cDNA injection

https://doi.org/10.1016/0896-6273(88)90132-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are made up of protein subunits that differ from those constituting muscle nAChRs. To characterize the physiological properties of one class of avian brain nicotinic receptor, we injected the nuclei of Xenopus oocytes with full-length cDNAs for the ligand binding (α4) and structural (nα) subunits. Injected oocytes had large ACh-induced currents in the microampere range that were insensitive to α-bungarotoxin, as expected for neuronal nAChRs. We found that these brain nAChRs incorporate at least two α4 subunits and that their functional properties differ from muscle nAChRs in at least two respects: the elementary conductance is considerably smaller (20 pS), and channels in outside out patches stop functioning within a few minutes.

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    Permanent address: Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

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