The neurosteroid 3␣-hydroxy-5␣-pregnan-20-one (allopregnanolone) facilitates GABA A receptor-mediated ionic currents via allosteric modulation of the GABA A receptor. Accordingly, allopregnanolone caused an increase in the slow decay time constant of spontaneous GABA-mediated IPSCs in magnocellular neurons recorded in hypothalamic slices. The allopregnanolone effect on IPSCs was inhibited by a G-protein antagonist as well as by blocking protein kinase C and, to a lesser extent, cAMP-dependent protein kinase activities. G-protein and protein kinase C activation in the absence of the neurosteroid had no effect on spontaneous IPSCs but enhanced the effect of subsequent allopregnanolone application. These findings together suggest that the neurosteroid modulation of GABA-mediated IPSCs requires G-protein and protein kinase activation, although not via a separate G-protein-coupled steroid receptor. : hypothalamus; neurosteroid; progestin; allopregnanolone; kinase; phosphorylation; GABA A receptor; G-proteins; whole-cell recording Neuronal function is acutely modulated by a class of steroids, the neurosteroids, that are synthesized de novo in the CNS (Corpechot et al., 1993;Cheney et al., 1995;Schumacher and Baulieu, 1995). 3␣-Hydroxy-5␣-pregnan-20-one (Allopregnanolone), a progesterone metabolite, has been shown to enhance the GABA A receptor-mediated Cl Ϫ current caused by exogenously applied GABA (Majewska et al., 1986;Harrison et al., 1987;Lambert et al., 1990;Puia et al., 1993;Rupprecht et al., 1993). The modulatory efficacy of the neurosteroids seems to depend on the subunit composition of the GABA A receptor. Variations in subunit subtypes change or eliminate completely the neurosteroids' ability to modulate GABA currents (Shingai et al., 1991;Zaman et al., 1992;Puia et al., 1993;Zhu et al., 1996; Reynolds, 1998, 1999;Smith et al., 1998;Brussaard et al., 1999). Receptor phosphorylation seems to play a role in the regulation and modulation of the GABA A receptor complex. Several studies have demonstrated that GABA A receptor function is regulated by phosphorylation via Ca 2ϩ /phospholipid-dependent protein kinase C (PKC) (Krishek et al., 1994;Poisbeau et al., 1999), cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) (Poisbeau et al., 1999), Ca 2ϩ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (McDonald and Moss, 1994), and protein tyrosine kinase (Bureau and Laschet, 1995;Moss et al., 1995;Dunne et al., 1998) and by an unidentified kinase associated with the GABA A receptor (Bureau and Laschet, 1995). Similarly, there is preliminary evidence that phosphorylation plays a role in the modulation of the GABA A receptor complex by neurosteroids (Gyenes et al., 1994;Leidenheimer and Chapell, 1997).
Key wordsNeurosteroid levels measured in the CNS and in the blood are correlated with different reproductive endocrine states (Corpechot et al., 1993(Corpechot et al., , 1997Heesch and Rogers, 1995;Palumbo et al., 1995;Bixo et al., 1997). Changes in the hypothalamic allopregnanolone level during the estrus cycle seem to serve a functionspeci...