Content area
Full Text
Cell Tissue Res (2008) 333:4959
DOI 10.1007/s00441-008-0622-8
REGULAR ARTICLE
Effect of salmon melanin-concentrating hormone and mammalian gonadotrophin-releasing hormone on somatolactin release in pituitary culture of Cichlasoma dimerus
Maximiliano Cnepa & Andrea Pozzi & Antonio Astola &
Mara Cristina Maggese & Paula Vissio
Received: 21 January 2008 / Accepted: 9 April 2008 / Published online: 28 May 2008 # Springer-Verlag 2008
Abstract We detected a close morphological association between melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH)-immuno-reactive (ir) fibers and somatolactin (SL)-ir cells in the pars intermedia of the cichlid fish Cichlasoma dimerus by double-label immunofluorescence. Male pituitaries obtained from adult C. dimerus were incubated with 0.1 10 M salmon MCH, and the amount of SL released into the culture medium was semi-quantified by Western blot. This assay showed an increase of SL release in a dose-dependent manner (linear regression: P<0.05). A close association of GnRH-ir fibers with SL-ir cells was also detected at the pars intermedia level. Male pituitaries were also incubated with 0.110 M of mammalian GnRH, and SL release was semi-quantified by Western blot, showing an increase of released SL levels in a dose-dependent
manner (linear regression: P<0.05). In contrast, SL release was unaffected from female pituitaries incubated with salmon MCH; however, an increasing tendency was observed when mammalian GnRH was used. Hypothalamic close association of MCH-ir perikarya and GnRH-ir fibers was found by double-label immunofluorescence indicating a possible relationship between them. These results suggest that SL, like other pituitary hormones, is under hypothalamic control and is involved in diverse physiological processes including background adaptation and reproduction. This study has also shown that the in vitro culture of a single C. dimerus pituitary is a feasible method for studying the control of SL release and other pituitary hormones.
Keywords Hypothalamus . Immunofluorescence . Western blot . (Teleostei, Perciformes, Cichlidae) Cichlasoma dimerus
Introduction
Hypothalamic melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a neuropeptide, with an apparent neuromodulatory role, that is present in all vertebrates. This hormone was originally isolated from the chum salmon, Oncorhynchus keta (Kawauchi et al. 1983) and was found to be a 17-amino-acid cyclic peptide. Characterization of mammalian MCH has demonstrated that this neuropeptide has been highly conserved throughout vertebrate evolution (Nahon 1994). In mammals, MCH has been shown to have central roles as a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator, regulating...