title: Ultrastructural localization of CART (cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript) peptides in the nucleus accumbens of monkeys.
abstract: CART (cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript) peptides are proposed to play a role in the action of psychostimulants as neurotransmitters/neuromodulators. In the present study, we demonstrate that the shell of the nucleus accumbens, a brain structure involved in drug reinforcement, is densely innervated by a dense plexus of CART peptide-immunoreactive varicose fibers in register with immunoreactive perikarya in monkeys. At the electron microscopic level, varicosities appeared as immunoreactive axon terminals packed with round electron-lucent vesicles and a variable number of darkly stained dense-core vesicles that formed symmetric synapses with dendrites. These findings suggest that CART peptides may be a cotransmitter with gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) in intrinsic axon collaterals of striatal projection neurons or interneurons in the primate nucleus accumbens.
authors.affiliation: Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Division of Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA. yolands@rmy.emory.edu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: E O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Koylu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Couceyro
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kuhar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D012453:Saimiri; D000098882:Cocaine- and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript Protein
chemical_list: D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D000098882:Cocaine- and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript Protein