Author/Editor		Vaillant, C; Lund, PK; Batt, RM; Salazar, I
Title		Glucagon-related peptides in brain and gut
Type		članek
Source		Zb Vet Fak Univ Ljublj
Vol. and No.		Letnik 30, št. 1
Publication year		1993
Volume		str. 69-79
Language		eng
Abstract		The distribution of proglucagon was examined in pancreas and gastrointestinal tract of rat, cat and dog and m rat hypothalamus. Using a DNA probe complementary to rat pre-proglucagon messenger RNA a single mRNA species approximately 1250 bases in length was identified in extracts of pancreas from mature dogs with pancreatic acinar cell atrophy. Antisera specific for three distinct regions of pancreatic proglucagon, that is NH2-terminal glicentin glucagon and GLP-I, collocalized immunoreactivity in cells in pancreatic islets and in gastrointestinal mucosa in rat, cat and dog. However in rat hypothalamus immunoreactivity was detected in nerve cell bodses by antiserum specific for glucagon but not by antisera specific for the other two epitopes of progiucagon, NHz-glicentin and GLP-1. These fmdings indicate that proglucagon in dog and cat pancreas closely resembles that in rat pancreas, and that a similar peptide is present in gastrointestinal endocrine cells in all three species. Thus pancreatic glucagon and the large glucagon-related immunoreactants in the gut may be derived by differential cleavage from a similar precursor. The same is not true of rat hypothalamus. Our findings indicate that some hypothalamic neurons contain material immunochemically related to pancreatic glucagon, but that it is not derived from a pancreatic proglucagon-like peptide.
Descriptors		HYPOTHALAMUS INTESTINES PANCREAS GLUCAGON RNA, MESSENGER ANIMALS, LABORATORY CATS DOGS RATS IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY MICROSCOPY, ELECTRON