In situ hybridization histochemistry in the human hypothalamus.

We have seen that mRNA for several neuropeptides can be visualized at the microscopic level in human post-mortem brain tissues using in situ hybridization histochemistry and oligonucleotides as probes. The specificity of the hybridization signal detected in each case is supported by several criteria such as Northern blot analysis, use of at least two oligonucleotides complementary to different regions of the same target mRNA, cohybridization of labeled and excess unlabeled oligonucleotide probes, and melting curve analysis of the formed hybrids. Furthermore, factors such as age, post-mortem delay or gender did not show a significant effect in the levels of hybridization in the control population studied. Hybridization signals comparable to those found in the control population were obtained in frozen tissues, stored for up to 6 years before analysis. The results obtained for the different neuropeptides examined are, in general, in good agreement with the available information on their distribution and cellular localization as determined by radioimmunoassay or immunohistochemistry. The use of in situ hybridization histochemistry has clearly revealed the location of neurons synthesizing these neuropeptides, adding important information to that provided by radioimmunoassay or immunohistochemistry. A typical example is the identification of peptide synthesizing neuronal cell bodies by immunohistochemistry. This requires, in some cases, the use of treatments such as colchicine, obviously impossible with human brain tissues. The abundance of mRNA could be further related to transcriptional activity and, when compared with peptide levels, can provide some clues on peptide turnover rates. Thus in the hypothalamus, the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei were found to contain cells expressing arginine-vasopressin and oxytocin mRNAs. Their distribution was in good agreement with that determined by immunohistochemistry (Dierickx and Vandesande, 1977). We have also found that these nuclei contain transcripts for neuropeptide genes such as preproenkephalin A, neuropeptide Y and somatostatin, in agreement with previously reported immunohistochemical data (Agid and Javoy-Agid, 1985; Emson et al., 1986). In the basal ganglia, numerous cells heterogeneously distributed throughout the caudate and putamen nuclei were found to contain preproenkephalin A mRNA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)