Is motilin a cerebellar peptide in the rat? A radioimmunological, chromatographic and immunohistochemical study.

Motilin was demonstrated by the immunoperoxidase technique in endocrine cells of the gastrointestinal tract using several specific antisera. Motilin-like immunoreactivity could only be demonstrated with one of these antisera and was observed in Purkinje cells and dendrites of the cerebellum, in pyramidal cells and dendrites of the cerebral cortex and in dendrites of the CA 3 field of the hippocampus of the rat. Very low motilin-like immunoreactivity was found in cerebellum as well as in cerebral cortex using radioimmunoassay. However, using reverse phase liquid chromatography combined with UV-detection and radioimmunoassay, no peak of a peptide corresponding to synthetic motilin was detectable in rat cerebellar extracts, in contrast to findings in rat duodenum. The results do not suggest that motilin is an intrinsic neuroactive substance of the cerebellum.