Related Experiment Videos
Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and VIP mRNA decrease in the cerebral cortex of nNOS knock-out(-/-) mice
Myeung Ju Kim1, Kyeung Min Joo, Yoon Hee Chung
1Department of Anatomy, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yongon-Dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea.
Abstract:
Although there is much evidence showing that NO regulates the release of VIP in several areas, there is no report about the influence of NO on VIP in the cerebral cortex. We therefore examined changes in VIP expression in the cerebral cortex of nNOS knock-out(-/-) mice using immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. The nNOS((-/-)) mice had significantly fewer VIP-immunoreactive neurons than the control mice and the VIP mRNA as well as the VIP-immunoreactivity of the individual neuron was decreased in the nNOS((-/-)) mice. The first demonstration of decrease in VIP expression in the cerebral cortex of nNOS((-/-)) mice may provide useful data for investigating the relation between NO and VIP in the cerebral cortex and the mechanisms of many functions of these two neurotransmitters.