DOI: 10.1530/ror.0.0010173 · Source: PubMed CITATIONS

Acidic amino acids, such as glutamate and aspartate, are gen-erally considered to be the predominant excitatory neurotrans-mitters within the mammalian central nervous system. They have been implicated in physiological processes such as learn-ing and memory and, because of their excitotoxic potential, in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (McDonald and Johnston, 1990; Baron et al., 1995; Kalb, 1995). Because glutamate receptors are most abundant in the hippo-campus, cerebral cortex and cerebellum, these areas of the brain were the focus of early radioligand binding studies, while the hypothalamus was largely ignored (Meeker et al., 1994). Never-theless, it has been known for some time that excitatory amino acids (EAAs) stimulate LH secretion, in rodents and in non-human primates (Ondo et al., 1976; Wilson and Knobil, 1982; Ta