Journal of chemical neuroanatomy
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J. Chem. Neuroanat. · Mar 1989
Immunohistochemical evidence for different opioid systems in the rat superior cervical ganglion as revealed by imipramine treatment and receptor blockade.
The distribution pattern of opioid-immunoreactive nerve cell bodies and varicose fibres in the rat superior cervical ganglion after chronic administration of the tricyclic antidepressant imipramine, various receptor blockades (muscarinic antagonist, atropine sulphate; opiate antagonist, naloxone; kappa-antagonist, MR2266BS), and denervation was investigated immunohistochemically using a biotin-streptavidin-peroxydase complex method. Antisera to four peptides derived from two different precursors of the opioid family were used. In control superior cervical ganglia sparsely scattered nerve fibres and no neuronal cell bodies were immunoreactive when antisera to dynorphin A (1-17) or alpha-neo-endorphin (cleavage products of prodynorphin) were applied. ⋯ The preganglionic origin of the investigated fibres with prodynorphin cleavage products was concluded from the complete disappearance of such fibres after preganglionic denervation. Denervation also resulted in an increase of met-enkephalin-arg-phe- and leu-enkephalin-immunoreactive perikarya. Small intensely fluorescent (SIF) cells, which in controls were nonrea