Selective association of neurotensin receptors with cholinergic neurons in the rat basal forebrain.

Neurotensin (NT) is a putative neurotransmitter, the central and peripheral actions of which appear to be mediated by specific high affinity receptors. Recent autoradiographic studies have localized a high proportion of these NT receptors over nerve cell bodies in rat basal forebrain. In the present study, monoiodo-NT-labeled binding sites are shown by combined autoradiography and cholinesterase histochemistry to be selectively associated with cholinergic nerve cell bodies in the diagonal band and substantia innominata of the rat basal forebrain. This finding suggests that endogenous NT may directly influence forebrain cholinergic function in the central nervous system.