期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1978
卷号：75
期号：3
页码：1591-1595
DOI：10.1073/pnas.75.3.1591
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Well-characterized antisera to porcine beta-endorphin were used to localize immunoreactive sites in cryostat sections of formaldehyde-fixed rat brain by indirect immunohistochemistry. Specificity was established by absorption of immune sera with synthetic peptide fragments. Specific immunoreactivity was localized to neuronal perikarya in the basal tuberal hypothalamus, and to varicose nerve fibers which were distributed to midline nuclear areas throughout the diencephalon and anterior pons. These patterns of reactivity were unaffected by preabsorption of the immune sera with millimolar concentrations of Met5- or Leu5-enkephalin or alpha-endorphin. The beta-endorphin immunoreactive structures were morphologically separate from those cells and fibers reported to react with antisera to the enkephalins. One anti-beta-endorphin serum gave additional immunoreactivity with myelinated axons in limbic cortical zones; when absorbed with purified rat myelin basic protein, only the specific patterns of immunoreactivity remained. Thus, discrete beta-endorphin-containing neuronal circuits exist in rat brain and are anatomically distinguishable from enkephalin-containing nerve cell and fiber pathways.
