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The Journal of Neuroscience, February 4, 2004, 24(5):1136-1148; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1586-03.2004

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Cellular/Molecular
The Glutamate Transporter GLT1a Is Expressed in Excitatory Axon Terminals of Mature Hippocampal Neurons

Weizhi Chen,^1 * Veeravan Mahadomrongkul,^4 * Urs V. Berger,⁵ Merav Bassan,¹ Tara DeSilva,¹ Kohichi Tanaka,^6,7 Nina Irwin,² Chiye Aoki,⁴  and Paul A. Rosenberg^1,3 

Departments of ¹Neurology and ²Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital, and ³Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, ⁴Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, ⁵Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, ⁶Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, School of Biomedical Science and Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8510, Japan, and ⁷PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Saitama 332-0012, Japan

GLT1 is the major glutamate transporter of the brain and has been thought to be expressed exclusively in astrocytes. Although excitatory axon terminals take up glutamate, the transporter responsible has not been identified. GLT1 is expressed in at least two forms varying in the C termini, GLT1a and GLT1b. GLT1 mRNA has been demonstrated in neurons, without associated protein. Recently, evidence has been presented, using specific C terminus-directed antibodies, that GLT1b protein is expressed in neurons in vivo. These data suggested that the GLT1 mRNA detected in neurons encodes GLT1b and also that GLT1b might be the elusive presynaptic transporter. To test these hypotheses, we used variant-specific probes directed to the 3'-untranslated regions for GLT1a and GLT1b to perform in situ hybridization in the hippocampus. Contrary to expectation, GLT1a mRNA was the more abundant form. To investigate further the expression of GLT1 in neurons in the hippocampus, antibodies raised against the C terminus of GLT1a and against the N terminus of GLT1, found to be specific by testing in GLT1 knock-out mice, were used for light microscopic and EM-ICC. GLT1a protein was detected in neurons, in 14–29% of axons in the hippocampus, depending on the region. Many of the labeled axons formed axo-spinous, asymmetric, and, thus, excitatory synapses. Labeling also occurred in some spines and dendrites. The antibody against the N terminus of GLT1 also produced labeling of neuronal processes. Thus, the originally cloned form of GLT1, GLT1a, is expressed as protein in neurons in the mature hippocampus and may contribute significantly to glutamate uptake into excitatory terminals.

Key words: uptake; trafficking; alternative splicing; excitotoxicity; PDZ domain; synapse

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Received June 27, 2003; revised December 2, 2003; accepted December 4, 2003.

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