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Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research, Oregon Health Sciences University Portland, Oregon 97201
the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine (B.C.) Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. James Douglass, Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research, Oregon Health Sciences University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, Oregon 97201.
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that opioid peptides may be involved in modulating the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis at a variety of levels in both males and females. We report here the presence of mRNA coding for the opioid peptide precursor prodynorphin in rat ovary, uterus, and testis. Expression of this opioid peptide precursor gene is compared to expression of two other opioid peptide precursor genes, proenkephalin and proopiomelanocortin, in mammalian reproductive tissues. Immunohistochemical analysis reveals that in the rat testis, prodynorphin- derived peptides are present in Leydig cells. The distribution of dynorphin immunoreactivity in various reproductive tissues was determined. Male reproductive tissues of the rat, rabbit, and guinea pig as well as rat ovary and uterus all contain detectable levels of dynorphin immunoreactivity. These observations suggest that prodynorphin-derived peptides may exert paracrine and/or autocrine effects in mammalian reproductive tissues. (Endocrinology 120: 707–713, 1987)
Footnotes
* This work was supported by Grants AM-16879 and AM-30155 from the NIADDK (to E.H.), Grant DA-02736 from the NIDA (to E.H.), Grant MH-40303 from the NIMH (to B.Q. and E.W.), and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (to B.C.). Experiments reported here were conducted according to the principles set forth in the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Aniamls," National Research Council, DHEW publication NIH 78–23. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of any agency of the U.S. Government.
Received June 6, 1986.
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