The regional distribution of adenylate cyclase in individual nuclei of rat hypothalamus.

The regional distribution of adenylate cyclase (AC) activity in separated individual hypothalamic nuclei was studied. The highest activity was found in the paraventricular nucleus and the lowest activity in the median eminence. In several other hypothalamic nuclei, there was also found higher activity of AC than in the total hypothalamus. These data show that in the individual hypothalamic nuclei there exist considerable differences in the activity of adenylate cyclase that may indicate their different function in regulation of neuroendocrine phenomena.