title: Cholecystokinin-like bioactivity in rat cerebral cortex.
abstract: Cholecystokinin (CCK)-like bioactivity was studied in extracts of rat cerebral cortex by three different bioassays. Positive results were obtained by all procedures used. A fairly good quantitative correlation was found when testing the same extracts by two of the methods. A considerable amount of CCK-like activity was demonstrated in the various subcellular fractions (synaptic membranes, synaptic vesicles, and synaptic fragments) corresponding to synaptic structures. The results are in accordance with the findings of several authors who demonstrated CCK-like immunoreactivity in the brain, especially in the cortex. The use of three different bioassays in three species (rabbit, rat, dog) seems to prove that some bioactive molecular form of CCK exists in the brain, mainly in the cortical area. The findings that subcellular elements of the synaptic structures contain relatively high concentrations of CCK raises the question of the possible role of CCK in the neuronal transmission.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002766:Cholecystokinin / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D011817:Rabbits; D011863:Radioimmunoassay / Q000379:methods; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013570:Synaptic Membranes / Q000378:metabolism; D013572:Synaptic Vesicles / Q000378:metabolism; D014020:Tissue Extracts / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D014020:Tissue Extracts; D002766:Cholecystokinin