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Localization of Immunoreactivity for Calcitonin Gene- Related Peptide in the Rat Anterior Pituitary during Ontogeny and Gonadal Steroid Manipulations and Detection of its Messenger Ribonucleic Acid

Departments of Histochemistry and Medicine (D.J.O., M.A.G., P.M.J., S.R.B.), Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 ONN, England; Section of Molecular Neurobiology (S.G.A.), Yale University School of Medicine New Haven, Connecticut 06510
Department of Anatomy (H.I.), Jikei University School of Medicine Tokyo 105, Japan

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. J. M. Polak, Department of Histochemistry, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Du Cane Road, London, W12 ONN, England.

Abstract

Localization of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) expression in the rat anterior pituitary and its changes during ontogeny and after gonadal steroid manipulations were studied by immunocytochemistry, RIA, and in situ hybridization. Colocalization studies and the combined use of immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization revealed that CGRP immunoreactivity is localized mainly in gonadotropes and atand β-CGRP messenger RNAs were detected in CGRP-immunoreactive cells. Immunoreactivity for CGRP also was detected in nerve fibers and colocalized with substance P immunoreactivity. Cells immunoreactive to CGRP antiserum were first detected in fetal rats at gestational day 18, and the incidence considerably increased between postnatal days 5 and 14. CGRP immunoreactivity was low in control adults of both sexes and in pregnant and ovariectomized females but increased in lactating, estrogensupplemented ovariectomized and high-dose estrogen-treated females, and in high-dose estrogen-treated and castrated males. Testosterone supplement suppressed the effect of castration on CGRP immunoreactivity in males. Quantities of extractable immunoreactive CGRP under conditions of estrogen manipulation corresponded well to the immunocytochemical findings (females: controls, 96.4 ± 13.1 fmol/gland; ovariectomized, 107.6 ± 19.2; high-dose estrogen-treated, 212 ± 23.0; estrogen-supplemented ovariectomized, 680 ± 42.1). The present study suggests that pituitary CGRP is synthesized and stored in gonadotropes, is modulated by gonadal steroids, and may have a functional link with gonadotropins. (Endocrinology 127: 2618–2629, 1990)

Footnotes

^* Dr. G. Gon is a visiting colleague from the Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo 105, Japan.

Received May 30, 1990.

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