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Developmental and cell‐selective variations in N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptor degradation by calpain

NMDA receptors play critical roles in synaptic modulation and neurological disorders. In this study, we investigated the developmental changes in NR2 cleavage by NMDA receptor‐activated calpain in cultured cortical and hippocampal neurons. Calpain activity increased with development, associated with increased expression of NMDA receptors but not of calpain I. The activation of calpain in immature and mature cortical cultures was inhibited by antagonists of NR1/2B and NR1/2A/2B receptors, whereas the inhibition of NR1/2B receptors did not alter calpain activation in mature hippocampal cultures. The degradation of NR2 subunits by calpain differed with developmental age. NR2A was not a substrate of calpain in mature hippocampal cultures, but was cleaved in immature cortical and hippocampal cultures. NR2B degradation by calpain in cortical cultures decreased with development, but the level of degradation of NR2B in hippocampal cultures did not change. The kinetics of NMDA receptor‐gated whole cell currents were also modulated by calpain activation in a manner that varied with developmental stage in vitro. In early (but not later) developmental stages, calpain activation altered the NMDA‐evoked current rise time and time constants for both desensitization and deactivation. Our data suggest that the susceptibility of the NMDA receptor to cleavage by calpain varies with neuronal maturity in a manner that may alter its electrophysiological properties.