Morphological correlates of serotonin-neuropeptide Y interactions in the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus: combined radioautographic and immunocytochemical data.

The morphological substrate of putative serotonin (5-HT)/neuropeptide Y (NPY) interactions in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) was investigated by combined radioautography and immunocytochemistry after intraventricular administration of (3H)5-HT in the rat. In the ventral portion of the SCN, the distribution of (3H)5-HT uptake sites overlapped closely the NPY-immunoreactive terminals. Previous investigations have shown that the dense 5-HT and NPY innervations of the SCN originate in different structures, i.e., the midbrain raphe nuclei and the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus, respectively. Accordingly, in the present study, destruction of 5-HT afferents by 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine was not found to induce any modification in NPY staining and, in ultrastructural immuno-radioautographic preparations, two distinct pools of axonal varicosities could be identified. Both 5-HT and NPY terminals established morphologically defined synaptic junctions, sometimes on the same neuronal target. Some cases of direct axo-axonic appositions between the two types of terminals were also encountered. These data constitute additional criteria for characterizing the cytological basis of the multiple transmitter interactions presumably involved in the function of the SCN as a central regulator of circadian biological rhythms.