Nerve growth factor (NGF) is synthesized in male germ cells. The NGF receptor (NGFR) mRNA was found in the Sertoli cells of rat testis. Hypophysectomy increased both NGFR mRNA in testis and the number of NGFR hybridizing cells in seminiferous tubules. This was suppressed by treatment with chorionic gonadotropin or testosterone, but not with follicle-stimulating hormone. The NGFR mRNA also increased after destruction of Leydig cells or blocking of the androgen receptor. This suggests that NGF produced by male germ cells regulates testicular function in an androgen-modulated fashion by mediating an interaction germ and Sertoli cells.

The neuropeptide galanin (GAL) was injected intrathecally (i.t.) in decerebrate, spinalized, unanesthetized rats and its effect on the nocifensive flexor reflex was examined. The reflex, which was evoked by intense mechanical or thermal stimulation of the foot, was recorded from the ipsilateral hamstring muscles. I.t. GAL increased reflex excitability significantly more to thermal than to mechanical stimuli. It is suggested that GAL, which is present in sensory fibers that innervate the skin, is released by the central terminals of cutaneous afferents that are much more sensitive to thermal than to mechanical stimuli.

Earlier studies have shown the formation of a novel neural lobe after hypophysectomy, an experimental manipulation that causes transection of neurohypophyseal nerve fibers and removal of pituitary hormones. The mechanisms that underly this regenerative process are poorly understood. The localization and number of peptide-immunoreactive (-IR) fibers in the median eminence were studied in normal rats and in rats at different times of survival after hypophysectomy using indirect immunofluorescence histochemistry. The number of vasopressin (VP)-IR fibers increased in the external layer of the median eminence in 5 d hypophysectomized rats. Oxytocin (OXY)-IR fibers decreased in the internal layer and progressively extended into the external layer. At long survival times (9 and 16 months) both VP- and OXY-IR fibers had a bilayered distribution occupying both the external and internal layers. Double-labeling experiments combining VP and tyrosine hydroxylase antisera as well as OXY and growth hormone-releasing factor antisera showed that injured neurosecretory fibers growing into the external layer displaced fibers from parvocellular cells originally located there. As a result, there was essentially an inversion in the distribution of these fibers within the median eminence. Galanin (GAL)- and cholecystokinin (CCK)-IR fibers exhibited a similar pattern of distribution after the lesion. Thus, after 5 d there was an increase in GAL- and CCK-IR fibers in the internal layer. At 14 and 30 d, the number of GAL- and CCK-IR fibers progressively decreased, but after longer survivals (9 and 16 months) there was a dramatic reappearance. Dynorphin (DYN)-LI showed a dramatic increase at all levels of the median eminence at short survival times after hypophysectomy, followed by a subsequent decrease to a final stage of a few, strongly immunoreactive fibers in the external layer at longer survival times. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)- and peptide histidine-isoleucine (PHI)-IR fibers in hypophysectomized animals had already contacted portal vessels 5 d after hypophysectomy, and from then on progressively increased in numbers. Finally, most of the peptide fibers described above formed dense innervation patterns around the large blood vessels along the lateral borders of the median eminence. The present results show that hypophysectomy induces a wide variety of changes in hypothalamic neurosecretory fibers. Not only is the expression of several peptides in these fibers modified following different survival times, but a reorganization of the distribution of immunoreactive fibers within the median eminence is demonstrated. The hypothesis is raised that regeneration of injured neurosecretory fibers may be dependent on changes in the expression of peptides possessing trophic actions.

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