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Distribution of ionotropic glutamate receptor subunit mRNAs in the rat hypothalamus

The excitatory amino acid neurotransmitter glutamate participates in the control of most (and possibly all) neuroendocrine systems in the hypothalamus. This control is exerted by binding to two classes of membrane receptors, the ionotropic and metabotropic receptor families, which differ in their structure and mechanisms of signal transduction. To gain a better understanding about the precise sites of action of glutamate and the subunit compositions of the receptors involved in the glutamatergic neurotransmission in the hypothalamus and septum, in situ hybridization was used with 35S‐labeled cRNA probes for the different ionotropic receptor subunits, including glutamate receptor subunits 1–4 (GluR1–GluR4), kainate‐2, GluR5–GluR7, N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor 1 (NMDAR1), and NMDAR2A–NMDAR2D. The results showed that subunits of α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazole‐propionate‐preferring, kainate‐preferring, and NMDA‐preferring receptor subunits are distributed widely but heterogeneously and that the GluR1, GluR2, kainate‐2, NMDAR1, NMDAR2A, and NMDAR2B subunits are the most abundant in the hypothalamus. Thus, GluR1 subunit mRNA was prominent in the lateral septum, preoptic area, mediobasal hypothalamus, and tuberomammillary nucleus, whereas kainate‐2 subunit mRNA was abundant in the medial septum‐diagonal band, median and anteroventral preoptic nuclei, and supraoptic nuclei as well as the magnocellular portion of the posterior paraventricular nucleus. Regions that contained the highest levels of NMDAR1 subunit mRNA included the septum, the median preoptic nucleus, the anteroventral periventricular nucleus, and the supraoptic and suprachiasmatic nuclei as well as the arcuate nucleus. Together, the extensive distribution of the different GluR subunit mRNAs strengthen the view that glutamate is a major excitatory neurotransmitter in the hypothalamus. The overlap in the distribution of the various subunit mRNAs suggests that many neurons can express GluR channels that belong to different families, which would allow a differential regulation of the target neurons by glutamate. J. Comp. Neurol. 434:101–124, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.