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A putative morphological substrate of the catecholamine-influenced neuropeptide Y (NPY) release in the human hypothalamus.

Abstract：

:Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a 36 amino acid peptide, which among others, plays a pivotal role in stress response. Although previous studies confirmed that NPY release is increased by stress in several species, the exact mechanism of the stress-induced NPY release has not been elucidated yet. In the present study, we examined, with morphological means, the possibility that catecholamines directly influence NPY release in the human hypothalamus. Since the use of electron microscopic techniques is virtually impossible in immunostained human samples due to the long post mortem time, double-label immunohistochemistry was utilised in order to reveal the putative catecholaminergic-NPY associations. The present study is the first to demonstrate juxtapositions between the catecholaminergic, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)/dopamine-beta hydroxylase (DBH)-immunoreactive (IR) and NPY-IR neural elements in the human hypothalamus. These en passant type associations are most numerous in the infundibular and periventricular areas of the human diencephalon. Here, NPY-IR neurons often form several contacts with catecholaminergic fibre varicosities, without any observable gaps between the contacting elements, suggesting that these juxtapositions may represent functional synapses. The lack of phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PNMT)-NPY juxtapositions and the relatively few observed DBH-NPY associations suggest that the vast majority of the observed TH-NPY juxtapositions represent dopaminergic synapses. Since catecholamines are known to be the crucial components of the stress response, the presence of direct, catecholaminergic (primarily dopaminergic)-NPY-IR synapses may explain the increased NPY release during stress. The released NPY in turn is believed to play an active role in the responses that are directed to maintain the homeostasis during stressful conditions.

journal_name

Neuropeptides

journal_title

Neuropeptides

authors

Ko L,Rotoli G,Grignol G,Hu W,Merchenthaler I,Dudas B

doi

10.1016/j.npep.2011.02.001

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2011-06-01 00:00:00

pages

197-203

issue

eissn

0143-4179

issn

1532-2785

pii

S0143-4179(11)00019-9

journal_volume

pub_type

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A putative morphological substrate of the catecholamine-influenced neuropeptide Y (NPY) release in the human hypothalamus.