Physiological roles of urocortins, human homologues of fish urotensin I, and their receptors

Regulation of corticotropin-releasing factor and urocortin 2/3 mRNA by leptin in hypothalamic N39 cells

“…Both Ucn2 and Ucn3 act as anorectic neuropeptides via the CRF 2 receptor [7,19]. Though both CRF 1 and CRF 2 receptors are involved in stress-induced inhibition of food intake, CRF 1 receptor mediates an immediate or transient inhibition of intake, whereas CRF 2 receptor is associated with a delayed or late inhibition of food intake [55,58]. Therefore, Ucn2 and Ucn3 may contribute to the delayed or late inhibition of food intake via the CRF 2 receptor.…”

“…A related compound is Urocortin (Ucn) 1, a 40-amino acid peptide originally cloned from the Edinger-Westphal nucleus, and a member of the CRF family of peptides [63]. Both CRF and Ucn1 contribute to stress responses via G protein-coupled receptors [29,58,62]. The CRF type 1 receptor (CRF 1 receptor) [6,11,65], for which both CRF and Ucn1 have high affinity [62], is predominately expressed in the brain and pituitary gland.…”

Evaluation of Endometrial Urocortin Secretion for Prediction of Pregnancy after Intrauterine Insemination

“…During implantation, numerous macrophages are present at the implantation site, and their presence was originally thought to represent an immune response against the invading trophoblasts (14 ). Because macrophages express urocortin receptors (15 ) and because urocortin acts on macrophages to induce their apoptosis (16 ), urocortin might promote blastocyst implantation and early maternal tolerance primarily by killing activated T cells (2 ). Finally, because vascular endometrial cells express the CRH type 2 receptor (17,18 ) and because urocortin is a potent vasodilator (19)(20)(21)(22)(23), urocortin may be an additional peptide released by the human endometrium for regulating endometrial angiogenesis and/or the tone of the vascular endothelium, key events during implantation.…”

Involvement of Nurr-1/Nur77 in corticotropin-releasing factor/urocortin1-induced tyrosinase-related protein 1 gene transcription in human melanoma HMV-II cells

“…CRF is highly selective towards the CRF1 receptor, while Ucn1 binds to both the CRF1 and CRF2 receptors. CRF and Ucn1 mediate stress responses, cardiovascular function, and immune functions via these CRF receptors (Kageyama et al, 1999;Suda et al, 2004).…”