This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit a related Letter to the Editor Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints, Permissions and Rights Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by LEEMAN, S. E. Articles by YATES, F. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by LEEMAN, S. E. Articles by YATES, F. E.

Characterization of a Calf Hypothalamic Extract with Adrenocorticotropin-Releasing Properties: Evidence for a Central Nervous System Site for Corticosteroid Inhibition of Adrenocorticotropin Release

S. E. LEEMAN, D. W. GLENISTER and F. E. YATES

Graduate Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts
Biological Research Laboratories, Harvard School of Dental Medicine:, and Department of Physiology, Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts.

This is publication No. 138 of the Graduate Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. Preliminary reports have appeared (1, 2, 3).

Supported by Grants No. H-2034 and A-4612 from National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, Bethesda; and Grant G-2845 from the National Science Foundation.

Abstract

ACTH secretion, as indicated by increments in plasma corticosterone concentration or by adrenal ascorbic acid depletion, was studied in rats. Histamino, laparotomy, serotonin, pitressin, synthetic arginine vasopressin, calf cerebral cortical extract, or calf hypothalamic extract was used as ACTH-releasing stimuli. Morphine inhibited ACTH release following all the stimuli except the hypothalamic extract. The extract was found to be free of significant ACTH contamination in assays of hypophysectomized rats. It is concluded that morphine does not impair ACTH release at the pituitary, and that the hypothalamic extract possesses a unique ACTH-releasing activity. Corticosterone, in amounts shown to be physiological, inhibited the secretion of ACTH following histamine or laparotomy, but did not affect the secretion of ACTH when it was provoked by pitressin or hypothalamic extract. The corticosteroid inhibition of ACTH release following histamine or laparotomy thus appears to occur in the central nervous system, and not in the anterior pituitary. A schema describing the functional localization of the various sites of action of stimulators and inhibitors of ACTH release based on these data is presented. Requirements for an in vivo assay of hypophysiotropic, ACTH-releasing neurohormones are summarized.

Footnotes

Trainee, Neurochemistry Training Grant No. 2B5241 from National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, Bethesda.

Work done during tenure as postdoctoral fellow of the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases.

Present address: Department of Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

Received June 29, 1961.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. R. TUCCI, E. A. ESPINER, P. I. JAGGER, D. P. LAULER, and G. W. THORN Vasopressin in the Evaluation of Pituitary-Adrenal Function Ann Intern Med, August 1, 1968; 69(2): 191 - 202. [Abstract] [PDF]