Departments of Physiology and Molecular Medicine and Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1023, New Zealand.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2010;681:29-48. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-6354-3_3.
Biological responses to pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC)-derived peptides administered in the brain were documented in the 1950s but their molecular mechanisms of action only began to be resolved with the mapping of melanocortin receptor subtypes to specific brain regions in the 1990s. Out of the five melanocortin receptor subtypes, MC3R and MC4R are widely recognised as 'neural' melanocortin receptors. In situ hybridization anatomical mapping of these receptor subtypes to distinct hypothalamic nuclei first indicated their roles in energy homeostasis, roles that were later confirmed with the obese phenotypes exhibited by Mc3R and Mc4R knockout mice. It is perhaps less well known however, that all five melanocortin receptor subtypes have been detected in developing and/or adult brains of various species. This chapter provides a comprehensive summary of the detection and mapping of each melanocortin receptor subtype in mammalian, chicken and fish brains and relates the sites of expression to functions that are either known or proposed for each receptor subtype.
20 世纪 50 年代就已经记录了在下丘脑内注射促黑激素原（POMC）衍生肽后产生的生物学反应，但直到 20 世纪 90 年代，人们才开始通过对黑素皮质素受体亚型在特定脑区的定位来阐明其作用的分子机制。在这 5 种黑素皮质素受体亚型中，MC3R 和 MC4R 被广泛认为是“神经”黑素皮质素受体。这些受体亚型在不同下丘脑核中的原位杂交解剖定位首先表明了它们在能量平衡中的作用，随后 Mc3R 和 Mc4R 基因敲除小鼠所表现出的肥胖表型进一步证实了这些作用。然而，人们不太了解的是，所有 5 种黑素皮质素受体亚型都在各种物种的发育中和/或成年脑中被检测到。本章全面总结了在哺乳动物、鸡和鱼脑中每种黑素皮质素受体亚型的检测和定位，并将表达部位与已知或推测的每种受体亚型的功能联系起来。
