de Lecea L, Kilduff T S, Peyron C, Gao X, Foye P E, Danielson P E, Fukuhara C, Battenberg E L, Gautvik V T, Bartlett F S, Frankel W N, van den Pol A N, Bloom F E, Gautvik K M, Sutcliffe J G
Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Jan 6;95(1):322-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.1.322.
We describe a hypothalamus-specific mRNA that encodes preprohypocretin, the putative precursor of a pair of peptides that share substantial amino acid identities with the gut hormone secretin. The hypocretin (Hcrt) protein products are restricted to neuronal cell bodies of the dorsal and lateral hypothalamic areas. The fibers of these neurons are widespread throughout the posterior hypothalamus and project to multiple targets in other areas, including brainstem and thalamus. Hcrt immunoreactivity is associated with large granular vesicles at synapses. One of the Hcrt peptides was excitatory when applied to cultured, synaptically coupled hypothalamic neurons, but not hippocampal neurons. These observations suggest that the hypocretins function within the CNS as neurotransmitters.
我们描述了一种下丘脑特异性信使核糖核酸（mRNA），它编码前阿黑皮素原，这是一对与肠道激素促胰液素具有大量氨基酸同源性的肽的假定前体。阿黑皮素（Hcrt）蛋白产物局限于下丘脑背侧和外侧区域的神经元细胞体。这些神经元的纤维广泛分布于下丘脑后部，并投射到包括脑干和丘脑在内的其他区域的多个靶点。Hcrt免疫反应性与突触处的大颗粒囊泡相关。当将其中一种Hcrt肽应用于培养的、突触耦合的下丘脑神经元而非海马神经元时，它具有兴奋性。这些观察结果表明，阿黑皮素在中枢神经系统中作为神经递质发挥作用。
