Cyclic AMP formation in chicken brain: effect of vasoactive intestinal peptide, peptide histidine-isoleucine (PHI), and some PHI-related peptides.

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (chicken form; chVIP), peptide histidine-isoleucine (porcine and rat forms; pPHI and rPHI), D-Phe(4) derivative of porcine PHI (D-Phe(4)-pPHI), peptide histidine-methionine (PHM; human PHI), and helodermin, were tested for their ability to stimulate cAMP production in [(3)H]adenine-prelabeled slices of chick cerebral cortex (CCx) and hypothalamus (HTh). The chVIP (0.1-3 microM) concentration-dependently and potently stimulated cAMP production in HTh and CCx; the responses observed after 3 microM of chVIP were comparable to those produced by 0.1 microM PACAP38. Helodermin (5 microM) moderately but significantly stimulated cAMP formation in both HTh and CCx, whereas pPHI, rPHI, PHM at 5 microM concentration only weakly affected cAMP production in CCx, and were inactive in HTh; D-Phe(4)-pPHI was inactive in both tissues. These data demonstrate that chVIP, PACAP, and to a lesser extent helodermin were capable of potently stimulating cAMP generation in the avian central nervous system. PHI-related peptides showed only weak or no activity, depending on the tissue.