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J. BARRY, M. P. DUBOIS, B. CARETTE, Immunofluorescence Study of the Preoptico-Infundibular LRF Neurosecretory Pathway in the Normal, Castrated or Testosterone-Treated Male Guinea Pig, Endocrinology, Volume 95, Issue 5, 1 November 1974, Pages 1416–1423, https://doi.org/10.1210/endo-95-5-1416
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Luteinizing hormone-releasing factor (LRF) has been localized in a preopticoinfundibular pathway in normal, castrated and testosterone-treated male guinea pigs, by an immunofluorescence technique. Some animals of each group were injected into the lateral ventricle with10% to 50% methanol, with or without melatonin, prior to study.
Controls for the specificity of the antisera to LRF were carried out by immunohemolysis, radioimmunoassays, or blocking experiments on tissue sections, using synthetic LRF, vasopressin, oxytocin, TRF, or a lipid-free brain extract. Immunoreactive cell bodies were counted in 100 serial 10 µ sagittal sections, between two symmetric paramedian planes 1 mm apart. A maximum of 5 to 15 positive cells⁄100 sections were found in all the animals, except the castrates treated with methanol in which as many as 20 times more reactivecells were found; melatonin did not produce a further increase in number, but it did produce an increase in the intensity of the immunoreactivity of the perikarya and their processes.
The perikarya of cells containing LRF were localized in 3 groups: the main group was found in the pre- and suprachiasmatic region; smaller groups were located in front of the anterior commissure and the parolfactory region. Beaded axonal pathways containing LRF traveled from the perikarya of the two first groups through the hypothalamus, in a caudal direction to end in the infundibulum around portal capillaries. Along their course these axons appeared to branch and at times to make synaptic contacts with cell bodies. In addition to the“preoptico-infundibular pathway”, some extrahypophyseal LRF pathways have been observed, some of which suggested a role for LRF in the control of sexual behavior. (Endocrinology95: 1416, 1974)
