CHARACTERIZATION OF TAURINE UPTAKE BY NEURONAL AND GLIAL CELLS IN CULTURE

Abstract

Abstract Uptake of [ 35 S]taurine was studied in parallel on glial and neuronal cells maintained in continuous culture, including transformed neuronal cells. Both glial and neuronal taurine uptake systems were concentrative, highly sodium‐dependent and inhibited by closely related structural analogues such as hypotaurine, β‐alanine and GABA. Strychnine was found to be a potent inhibitor of taurine uptake, especially in the glial cells, while parachloromercuriphenylsulphonate was more efficient on the neuronal clones. In contrast with uptake by neuroblastoma cells, the glial transport was dependent on the presence of calcium in the incubation medium.