Simultaneous Visualization of Vasopressin and Oxytocin mRNA- Containing Neurons in the Hypothalamus Using Non-Radioactive in situ Hybridization Histochemistry.

In situ hybridization histochemistry (ISHH) using synthetic oligodeoxynucleotide probes has been used to demonstrate the sites of expression of mRNA for vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OXT) in the rat brain. ISHH was performed with two types of non-radioactive probes, labelled with either alkaline phosphatase or 5'-biotin. Simultaneous detection of the mRNAs for both AVP and OXT was achieved using an alkaline phosphatase substrate for the AVP probe and an anti-biotin monoclonal (mouse) antibody for the OXT probe. These probes revealed two non-overlapping populations of AVP and OXT neurons on the same section.