The effects of GABA agonists on glutamic acid decarboxylase, GABA-transaminase, activin, salmon gonadotrophin-releasing hormone and tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA in the goldfish (Carassius auratus) neuroendocrine brain.

GABA plays a pivotal role in reproduction by regulating luteinising hormone (LH) release from the anterior pituitary. Current evidence indicates that there is a prominent stimulatory effect of GABA on LH release in teleost fish which results from enhanced gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) release and decreased dopamine turnover in the brain and pituitary. We hypothesised that there may be additional mechanisms underlying LH release in goldfish and investigated the relative mRNA levels of GABA synthesising enzymes (GAD65 and GAD67), degrading enzyme (GABA-T), activin betaa and betab, salmon GnRH (sGnRH), and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) with the real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction after GABA agonist treatment. Sexually regressed female goldfish were i.p. injected with either the GABA(A) agonist muscimol (1 microg/g body weight) or the GABA(B) agonist baclofen (10 microg/g body weight). Both agonists significantly increased serum LH after 6 h. Muscimol decreased GAD65 (approximately ten-fold), GABA-T (approximately 15-fold) and TH (approximately three-fold) mRNA in the telencephalon. Baclofen significantly reduced GAD67 (approximately two-fold) and GABA-T (approximately two-fold) mRNA levels in the hypothalamus. Activin betaa, but not activin betab, steady-state mRNA was increased approximately three- to four-fold in both the hypothalamus and telencephalon after baclofen treatment. There was no change in sGnRH mRNA levels in either tissue after GABA agonist treatment. We show that the GABA(A) and GABA(B) receptor agonists have differing and rapid effects on gene transcription in the goldfish neuroendocrine brain and, by affecting specific targets, we identify putative genomic mechanisms underlying GABA-stimulated LH release in fish.