Feng, Hua-Jun and Robert L. Macdonald. Proton modulation of ␣13␦ GABA A receptor channel gating and desensitization. J Neurophysiol 92: 1577-1585, 2004. First published May 19, 2004 10.1152/jn.00285.2004. ␣␥ GABA A receptor currents are phasic and desensitizing, whereas ␣␦ GABA A receptor currents are tonic and have no fast desensitization. ␣␥ receptors are subsynaptic and mediate phasic inhibition, whereas ␣␦ receptors are extra-or perisynaptic and mediate tonic inhibition. Given the different roles of these GABA A receptor isoforms and the fact that GABA A receptors are allosterically regulated by extracellular pH in a subunit-dependent manner, we compared the effects of changing pH on rat ␦ or ␥2L subunit-containing GABA A receptor currents. Human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293T) were transfected with cDNAs encoding rat ␣1, 3, ␥2L, or ␦ GABA A receptor subunits in several binary and ternary combinations, and whole cell and single channel patch-clamp recordings were obtained. Lowering pH substantially enhanced ␣13 receptor currents. This effect was significantly more pronounced for ternary ␣13␦ receptors, whereas ternary ␣13␥2L receptors were relatively insensitive to lowered pH. Lowering pH did not affect the extent of desensitization of ␣13 and ␣13␥2L receptor currents, but significantly increased the extent of desensitization of ␣13␦ receptor currents. Lowering pH prolonged deactivation of ␣13 and ␣13␦ receptor currents and enhanced the "steady-state" currents of ␣13␦ receptors evoked by long-duration (28 s) GABA applications. Lowering pH significantly increased mean open duration of ␣13␦ steadystate single channel currents due to introduction of a longer-duration open state, suggesting that low pH enhances ␣13␦ receptor steadystate currents by modifying GABA A receptor gating properties. Mehta and Ticku 1999;Olsen and Macdonald 2002). Native GABA A receptors may be composed primarily of ␣␥ and ␣␦ isoforms (McKernan and Whiting 1996). The ␣␥ isoforms, found mainly in GABAergic synapses, are thought to mediate phasic inhibition, whereas the ␣␦ isoforms selectively target extra-or perisynaptic membranes, where they have been proposed to exert tonic inhibition (Bai et al. 2001; Isaacson 2000;Lerma et al. 1986; Nusser et al. 1998;Saxena and Macdonald 1994;Stell et al. 2003;Wei et al. 2003).GABA A receptors are allosterically modulated by a variety of compounds in a subunit-dependent manner (Pritchett et al. 1989; Sundstrom-Poromaa et al. 2002;Thompson et al. 1999;Wafford et al. 1994;Wallner et al. 2003). It has been recently reported that ␣␥ and ␣␦ GABA A receptors are differentially modulated by neurosteroids and barbiturates (Feng et al. 2002;Wohlfarth et al. 2002), suggesting that phasic inhibition and tonic inhibition may make different contributions to the inhibitory responses in physiological or pathophysiological conditions.Alteration of extracellular proton concentration (pH) has been shown to occur in pathophysiological conditions such as seizures and to influence neuronal exc...