Colocalisation of taurine- with transmitter-immunoreactivities in the nervous system of the migratory locust

✍ Scribed by Stevenson, Paul A.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 708 KB
• Volume: 404
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9967
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19990201)404:1<86::aid-cne7>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

The expression of taurine immunoreactivity (TAU-IR) by neurones immunoreactive for octopamine (OA-IR), ␥-aminobutyric acid (GABA-IR), and the C-terminal peptide sequence arginine-phenylalanine (RFamide-IR) was investigated in the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria). TAU-IR is colocalised with OA-IR in the dorsal unpaired median neurones, which are efferent neuroparacrine cells. TAU-IR is not, however, expressed by OA-IR interneurones in the thoracic ganglia and brain. The only other TAU-IR somata found with peripheral axons are the medial neurosecretory cells in abdominal ganglia that project to the neurohaemal organs. These cells exhibit RFamide-IR. The majority of TAU-IR somata in the thoracic abdominal nervous system exhibit GABA-IR. These cells correspond to populations of identified local and intersegmentally projecting inhibitory interneurones. TAU-IR is not, however, exhibited by the well-known GABAergic common inhibitor neurones, which have peripherally projecting axons. This differential distribution of TAU-IR in basically two, functionally different, neuronal subsets (efferent neurosecretory and neuroparacrine cells, inhibitory interneurones) conforms with the concept of taurine acing as a depressive agent to limit excitation during stressful conditions.