title: Coexistence of immune-neuro-endocrine substances in the rat central neurons.
abstract: To investigate the expression of interleukin-2 (IL-2), metabotropic glutamate receptor subunit 1 (mGluR1) and estrogen receptor (ER) in neurons of the rat central nervous system (CNS) and identify the coexistence possibility of these immune-neuro-endocrine substances in the central neurons, the tri-labeling immunocytochemical technique with different species-specific primary antibodies (goat anti-IL-2 antibody, rabbit anti-mGluR1 antibody and mouse anti-ER antibody) were used to incubate two serial neighbor sections (one for demonstrating IL-2, another for mGluR1 and ER) of the cerebral cortex, medulla oblongata and spinal cord. There were IL-2-, mGluR1- and ER-immunoreactivity (IR)-positive labeled neurons in the above-mentioned central areas. The IL-2-IR production showed brown color, located in the cytoplasm; In the neighbor serial section, the mGluR1-IR, production showed blue-black color, located on the cell membrane; the ER-IR production also showed brown color, located in the cytoplasm and nuclei. There were mGluR1/ER double-labeled cells in the same section, which accounted for about 50%-60% of the total single and double labeled neurons. It was identified by projection check of serial neighbor sections that had mGluR1/ER/IL-2 tri-labeled cells, which accounted for about 30% of total mGluR1/ER double-labeled neurons. The results indicate that mGluR1, ER and Il-2 can coexist in the same rat central neurons, therefore, providing morphological basis for the theory about immune-neuro-endocrine network at the cellular level for the first time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tongji Medical University, Wuhan 430030.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D004971:Estrus; D005260:Female; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D018094:Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate / Q000378:metabolism*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D007376:Interleukin-2; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D018094:Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate; C104077:metabotropic glutamate receptor type 1