Glycine in the spinal cord of cats with local tetanus rigidity.

In cats, significant loss of glycine occurred in spinal grey matter on the side of local tetanus, whereas the gamma-aminobutyric acid concentration remained unaltered. These findings suggest that tetanus rigidity is due to the blocking of the spinal inhibitory transmission by decrease of inhibitory transmitter and that glycine is an effective inhibitory transmitter in cat spinal cord.