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A signature feature of tetrapod pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) is the presence of three melantropin (MSH) coding regions (α-MSH, β-MSH, γ-MSH). The MSH duplication events occurred early during the radiation of the jawed vertebrates well over 400 million years ago. However, in at least one order of modern bony fish (subdivision Teleostei; order Salmoniformes; i.e. salmon and trout) the γ-MSH sequence...
A highly specific antiserum against lamprey gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) was used to localize l-GnRH in areas of the rat brain associated with reproductive function. Immunoreactive l-GnRH-like neurons were observed in the ventromedial preoptic area (POA), the region of the diagonal band of Broca and the organum vasculosum lamina terminalis, with fiber projections to the rostral wall of the...
This study was designed to investigate the effects of synthetic mouse pancreatic polypeptide (mPP) on feeding and anxiety in mice. The intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of mPP (0.003-3 nmol) dose-dependently increased food intake. A significant increase was observed 20 min after ICV injection and continued for 4 h. The intraperitoneal (IP) injection of mPP (0.03-30 nmol) dose-dependently decreased...
Leptin is produced in adipose tissue in the periphery, but its satiety effect is exerted in the CNS that it reaches by a saturable transport system across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The short form of the leptin receptor has been hypothesized to be the transporter, with impaired transport of leptin being implicated in obesity. In Koletsky rats, the splice variant that gives rise to the short form...
The rather unique properties of prions and their presence in very different kinds of living species suggest that this type of molecule was created at a very early stage of evolution and may even represent a relic from a time where peptide evolution was ongoing and RNA/DNA did not yet exist. A comparison of the most frequently occurring amino acid sequences in known prions with the sequences preferentially...
The orexins are recently identified appetite-stimulating hypothalamic peptides. We used immunohistochemistry to map orexin-A and orexin-B immunoreactivity in rat brain, spinal cord, and some peripheral tissues. Orexin-A- and orexin-B-immunoreactive cell bodies were confined to the lateral hypothalamic area and perifornical nuclei. Orexin-A-immunoreactive fibers were densely distributed in the hypothalamus,...
Although it has been reported that hirudin was excreted in urine mainly as its nonmetabolized form in humans, dogs, and rabbits, no report has been published about the molecular nature of urinary metabolites in rats. We found that nonmetabolized hirudin could not be detected in rat urine after its i.v. administration and that urinary metabolites of recombinant hirudin CX-397 consisted of at least...
The dorsal periaqueductal gray matter (DPAG) is one of the main output regions of the brainstem for the expression of defense reaction. Recent findings implicating neurokinins in the expression of fear or anxiety-like behaviors, have stimulated interest in the participation of these neuropeptides in the generation of aversive states in the dorsal periaqueductal gray matter. Analyses of traditional...
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the possible effect of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) on learning and memory by using the one-trial step-down inhibitory avoidance test in rats. The peptide was infused into hippocampus, amygdala, and entorhinal cortex. MCH caused retrograde facilitation when given at 0 or 4 h post-training into hippocampus, but only at 0 h into amygdala. From...
The hypotensive effect of proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) was examined in conscious pregnant (8, 14, and 20 days of pregnancy) and nonpregnant rats. Intravenous administration of PAMP (3-60 nmol/kg) produced a dose-dependent depressor response in both pregnant and nonpregnant rats. However, the maximum decrease in blood pressure was significantly attenuated in pregnant rats in mid-...
The external ventral protractor muscle of the VIIth abdominal segment, M234, is a skeletal muscle that possesses receptors that recognize a range of FMRFamide-related peptides and application of these peptides results in an increase in the amplitude of neurally evoked contractions with little or no effect on basal tonus. FLRFamide itself has the same biologic activity as the extended peptides, whereas...
This paper is the twenty-first installment of our annual review of research concerning the opiate system. It summarizes papers published during 1998 that studied the behavioral effects of the opiate peptides and antagonists, excluding the purely analgesic effects, although stress-induced analgesia is included. The specific topics covered this year include stress; tolerance and dependence; eating and...
Adrenomedullin (ADM) is a hypotensive peptide, highly expressed in the mammalian adrenal medulla, which belongs to a peptide superfamily including calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and amylin. Quantitative autoradiography demonstrated the presence of abundant [ 125 I]ADM binding sites in both zona glomerulosa (ZG) and adrenal medulla. ADM binding was selectively displaced by...
Stressful stimuli repeatedly applied during the first postnatal weeks can induce body weight gain in the mouse during adulthood. This effect can be prevented by injecting naloxone concomitantly with stress. The peptides belonging to the Tyr-MIF-1 family have a great modulating activity on numerous stress-induced phenomena. The aim of the present work was to compare the effect of repeated neonatal...
Intracerebroventricular injection of the octadecaneuropeptide ODN in mouse, at doses of 12.5-1000 ng, reduced the percentage of convulsing animals and increased the latency of convulsions elicited by pentylenetetrazol (50 mg/kg, intraperitoneal [IP]). ODN also reduced the percentage of mortality induced by pentylenetetrazol (100 mg/kg, IP). The COOH-terminal octapeptide fragment of ODN was approximately...
The purpose of this study was to determine the conformation and vasorelaxant effects of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) self-associated with sterically stabilized phospholipid micelles (SSM) and whether calmodulin modulates both of these processes. Circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed that VIP is unordered in aqueous solution at room temperature but assumes appreciable α helix conformation...
The study of two populations with a recent onset of type 2 diabetes showed that a subset of the patients had higher levels of adrenomedullin (AM) than the rest of the diabetics. In this subset, physiological elevations of AM might have triggered the disease in predisposed individuals. Diabetics showed higher levels of AM than healthy controls. In addition, glycemia was measured in diabetic rats after...
The development of addictive states in response to chronic opioid use may be regulated partially by the release of endogenous peptides. These anti-opiate peptides (AOP) are secreted or released into the CNS and produce diverse actions that counterbalance the effects of prolonged opiate exposure. Though the mechanism(s) by which these peptides exert their physiological properties remain largely unknown,...
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