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Introduction
Introduction
Glutamate is the principal excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain and inevitably plays a key role in many of the phenomena of epilepsy and status epilepticus (SE). It acts on three families of ionotropic receptor—N-methyl-d-aspartate, or NMDA; α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid, or AMPA; and kainate (22)—and on three families of metabotropic receptor—group I = mGlu1 and mGlu5, group II = mGlu2 and mGlu3, and group III = mGlu4, mGlu6, mGlu7, and mGlu8 (5, 18).
This chapter addresses three questions that are the subject of current research and remain largely unresolved at present:
1. What role do glutamate and the different glutamate receptor subtypes play in the initiation and maintenance of SE?
2. Are there changes in glutamate receptor expression or function during the course of SE that influence its features and outcome?
3. Can drugs acting selectively on glutamate receptors influence the duration and outcome of SE?
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