Electron microscopy examination of galanin-like peptide (GALP)-containing neurons in the rat hypothalamus.

Full Abstract

Galanin-like peptide (GALP) is a novel peptide which is isolated from the porcine hypothalamus. GALP-containing neurons are present in the arcuate nucleus (ARC), being particularly densely concentrated in medial posterior regions. To observe the ultrastructure and synaptic relationships of GALP-containing neurons in the ARC, light and immunoelectron microscopy techniques were used. At the light microscope level, GALP-containing neurons were observed distributed rostrocaudally throughout the ARC, with the majority present in the posterior, periventricular zones. At the electron microscope level, many immunopositive dense-cored vesicles were evident in the perikarya, dendrites and axon terminals of the GALP-containing neurons. Furthermore, these neurons received synapses from immunonegative axon terminals that were symmetric in the case of synapses made on perikarya, and both asymmetric and symmetric for synapses made on dendrites. Axon terminals of GALP-containing neurons often made synapses on immunonegative dendrites. Such synapses were all symmetric. Synapses were also found between axon terminals and perikarya as well as dendrites of GALP-containing neurons. These findings suggest that the physiological role of the GALP-containing neurons in the ARC is based on complex synaptic relationships between GALP-containing neurons and either GALP-immunopositive or -immunonegative neurons.

Author information

Author/s: Guan, Jian-Lian (JL); Kageyama, Haruaki (H); Wang, Qing-Ping (QP); Takenoya, Fumiko (F); Kita, Tetsuro (T); Matsumoto, Hirokazu (H); Ohtaki, Tetsuya (T); Shioda, Seiji (S);

Affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Showa University School of Medicine, 1-5-8 Hatanodai, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 142-8555, Japan.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Regulatory peptides (Regul Pept), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2005-Mar; vol 126 (issue 1-2) : pp 73-8

Dates: Created 2004/12/28; Completed 2005/06/10; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 15620417, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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