Developmental stability of taurine's activation on glycine receptors in cultured neurons of rat auditory cortex

Taurine is an endogenous amino acid that can activate glycine and/or γ-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptors in the central nervous system. During natural development, taurine's receptor target undergoes a shift from glycine receptors to GABAA receptors in cortical neurons. Here, we demonstrate that taurine's receptor target in cortical neurons remains stable during in vitro development. With whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, we found that taurine always activated glycine receptors, rather than GABAA receptors, in neurons of rat auditory cortex cultured for 5-22 days. Our results suggest that the functional sensitivity of glycine and GABAA receptors to taurine is critically regulated by their developmental environments.