Existence of glutamate in noradrenergic locus coeruleus neurons of rodents.
This study distinguished three types of immunolabeled neurons in nucleus locus coeruleus (LC) of the rat and mouse: cells single labeled either for tyrosine hydroxylase-like immunoreactivity (TH-LI) or glutamate (Glu)-LI, and those double labeled for both antigens. Although the double labeled neurons tend to be located in the middle and ventral thirds of the rat LC nucleus, throughout its rostrocaudal extent, such feature was not apparent in the mouse. Quantitatively a majority of neurons cocontaining TH- and Glu-LI were commonly observed in the rat (62%) and mouse (77%) LC. Additional studies utilizing the combined retrograde and immunohistochemical labeling revealed that such a high incidence of coexistence of the TH- and Glu-LI was also represented by coeruleocortical neurons in the rat (69% and 75% of all ipsilateral and contralateral projection cells, respectively). A possible role of coeruleocortical neurons involvement in Glu- and norepinephrine-mediated target neuron dysfunction is discussed.
Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-6520.
S J
SJ
Fung
V K
VK
Reddy
R H
RH
Liu
Z
Z
Wang
C D
CD
Barnes
D000818:Animals; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008125:Locus Coeruleus / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008818:Mice, Neurologic Mutants; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase / Q000378:metabolism
D018698:Glutamic Acid; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase; D009638:Norepinephrine