Growth dependent induction of high affinity gamma-amino-butyric acid transport in cultures of a normal human brain cell line.
Dense, growth inhibited cultures of the human putative glial cell line U-787CG were found to take up gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) via a high-affinity transport mechanism (Km = 1.2 microM) not detectable in sparse, rapidly growing cultures. The uptake of GABA was essentially the same in young and old dense cultures indicating that the induction of the high-affinity GABA transport was dependent on cell density and/or growth rate rather than time in culture after trypsinization.