Key result
Magnesium blockade of NMDA receptors shows little age dependence across neonatal to four-week-old rats.
Why the study?
Previous studies suggested that block of NMDA receptor channels by Mg2+ increases substantially with age, but this was inconsistent across methods.
Population
CA1 pyramidal cells from neonatal and 2-wk-old rats and dentate gyrus granule cells from neonatal and 4-wk-old rats
Comparison
Magnesium (Mg2+) vs Mg2+-free solutions
Design
Preclinical electrophysiological study using outside-out patches from rat hippocampus slices
Authors
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Challenges prior reports of age-dependent Mg2+ block; leaves open human NMDA maturation and should not yet alter practice.
The study demonstrates that the block of NMDA receptor channels by Mg2+ does not increase substantially with age in the rat hippocampus, challenging previous studies.
Strecker et al. (1994) studied this question. Magnesium (Mg2+) vs. Mg2+-free solutions was evaluated on Kinetics of Mg2+ block and channel properties. Magnesium blockade of NMDA-receptor channels showed similar rates of block and unblocking across neonatal, 2-week-old, and 4-week-old rats, indicating little age dependence.
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