Simultaneous detection of tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactivity and vasopressin mRNA in neurons of the human paraventricular and supraoptic nucleus.

Our purpose was to investigate the proportion of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactive (IR) neurons expressing vasopressin (VP) mRNA in the human paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei by combining in situ hybridization with immunohistochemistry on the same tissue section. A variability in the proportion of TH-IR neurons synthesizing VP mRNA was observed in adults which was usually more than 50%. In neonates almost all the TH-IR neurons appeared to contain VP mRNA.