A diversity of GABA receptors in the retina

GABA, a major inhibitory transmitter in the vertebrate retina, plays important roles in processing visual information. There are three functional families of retinal GABA receptors, the ionotrqpic GABA(A) and GABA(C) receptors and the metabotropic GABA(B) receptor. GABA(C) receptors are enriched in the retina, compared to other parts of the CNS. GABA(C) and GABA(B) receptors are found on subsets of neurons, whereas GABA(A) receptors are ubiquitous. The distinct functional properties of GABA(A), GABA(B) and GABA(C) receptors suggests that individual neurons with different receptor complements have unique responses to GABA.