Glutamate as a Neurotransmitter
Glutamate Outside the community of biomedical scientists, glutamate is probably best known as "monosodium glutamate" or "MSG" which is used as a flavor or taste enhancer in food. It is usually available together with other food additives and spices in most large food stores. Some people may also have heard the term "Chinese restaurant syndrome" which is a sudden fall in blood pressure with subsequent fainting after ingestion of very spicy food. Excessive use of MSG has been suggested to be the cause, but this is controversial. The use of glutamate as a food additive, however, is not the reason for the enormous scientific interest in glutamate. Glutamate is the major excitatory transmitter in the brain The main motivation for the ongoing World Wide research on glutamate is due to the role of glutamate in the signal transduction in the nervous systems of apparently all complex living organisms, including man. Glutamate is considered to be the major mediato...