Methodologies

Peptide Literature

References

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Ultrastructural localization of CART peptides in the nucleus accumbens of monkeys

Title

Ultrastructural localization of CART (cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript) peptides in the nucleus accumbens of monkeys.

Author

Smith Y; Koylu EO; Couceyro P; Kuhar MJ

Source

Synapse, 27(1):90-4 1997 Sep

Abstract

CART (cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript) peptides are proposed to play a role in the action of psychostimulants as neurotransmitters/neuromodulators. In the present study, we demonstrate that the shell of the nucleus accumbens, a brain structure involved in drug reinforcement, is densely innervated by a dense plexus of CART peptide-immunoreactive varicose fibers in register with immunoreactive perikarya in monkeys. At the electron microscopic level, varicosities appeared as immunoreactive axon terminals packed with round electron-lucent vesicles and a variable number of darkly stained dense-core vesicles that formed symmetric synapses with dendrites. These findings suggest that CART peptides may be a cotransmitter with gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) in intrinsic axon collaterals of striatal projection neurons or interneurons in the primate nucleus accumbens.

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