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Glycine as a neurotransmitter in the forebrain: a short review

  • Basic Neurosciences, Genetics and Immunology - Review Article
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Abstract

Since the late 1970s glycine has been considered an important inhibitory neurotransmitter in brain stem and medulla. The description of its involvement in the mechanism of action of the potent neurotoxin strychnine pushed further the concept of inhibitory transmitter. The significant concentrations of glycine in forebrain motivated investigators to evaluate different aspects of glycinergic transmission under the ontogenetic, physiologic and pathologic standpoints. This review encompasses a few of these aspects as the role of the different glycine receptors (GlyRs) in intracellular chloride balance, glycine transporters, GABA/Glycine co-release, glycine/NMDA receptor interaction, glycine receptors in acute alcohol effects and advocates a more relevant role for glycine as a stimulatory transmitter in forebrain areas. Finally, the possible co-release of glycine and GABA is considered as an important process to understand the role of glycine in forebrain neural transmission.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the support from Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP—02/04545-7, 07/01066-4) and CNPq—INCT-Tox 2009 to LRPT. MSH is recipient of a PhD fellowship from FAPESP (06/60982-8). We greatly thank MSc Carina T. Rizzi for reviewing the final manuscript for English.

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  1. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1524, São Paulo, SP, 05508-900, Brazil

    Marina Sorrentino Hernandes

  2. Laboratory of Pharmacology, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil, 1500, São Paulo, SP, 05503-900, Brazil

    Lanfranco R. P. Troncone

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  1. Marina Sorrentino Hernandes
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Correspondence to Lanfranco R. P. Troncone.

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Hernandes, M.S., Troncone, L.R.P. Glycine as a neurotransmitter in the forebrain: a short review. J Neural Transm 116, 1551–1560 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-009-0326-6

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