When the brain suffers an injury such as a stroke, neurons release glutamate onto nearby neurons which become excited, overloaded with calcium, and die. Normal neurotransmission is altered during injury, causing excess calcium to activate enzymes which eventually leads to destruction of the cell. This damage occurs through glutamate receptors.
At one time, glutamate receptors were thought to exist exclusively in the CNS. It is only recently that they have been found outside the CNS, in the peripheral tissue. The editors of Glutamate Receptors in Peripheral Tissue: Excitatory Transmission Outside the CNS are the first to show their presence outside the CNS using molecular biology techniques and immunohistochemistry. This text is the first devoted exclusively to these receptors in peripheral tissues.
