title: Anterior to posterior variations in the concentration of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in human basal ganglia.
abstract: Serial coronal sections were cut from frozen right cerebral hemispheres from five normal human brains. From each section samples of caudate nucleus, putamen, internal and external globus pallidus and substantia nigra were removed. Sampling was such that the entire structure was removed from each slice. The concentration of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity, expressed as units per mg protein, was found to vary between nuclei, and to vary along the anterior to posterior axis of some nuclei. Highest concentrations were found in the caudate nucleus, with the head and tail containing greater amounts than the body. The high concentrations in the head of the caudate may be due to contamination of samples of this region with adjacent nucleus accumbens. In a separate series of cases, the nucleus accumbens was shown to be considerably higher concentrations of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity than the head of the caudate. Concentrations in the putamen tended to decrease along the anterior to posterior axis. In the external globus pallidus, levels of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity showed the most striking changes along the anterior to posterior axis, rising 2.5 fold in the first three samples, and then falling 4 fold in the more posterior sections. The internal globus pallidus had generally lower concentrations, and these varied in a pattern opposite to that in the external globus pallidus. Levels in the substantia nigra were low compared to those in caudate and putamen.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000032:analysis*; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000032:analysis; D005917:Globus Pallidus / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay; D008875:Middle Aged; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011699:Putamen / Q000032:analysis; D013004:Somatostatin / Q000032:analysis*; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D013004:Somatostatin