Transient appearance of beta-endorphin immunoreactive cells within the germinal zone of neonatal rat forebrain

Recent evidence implicates endogenous opioid systems in basic processes which underlie morphogenesis. The present report describes a population of cells within the germinal zone of the neonatal rat forebrain which are immunoreactive for the opioid peptide beta-endorphin and other peptides derived from the proopiomelanocortin precursor. These cells are present at the time of birth, but are no longer detectable by the sixth postnatal day. They have medially and laterally directed processes which extend to the ventricular wall and across the caudate putamen to its lateral border. Cells of similar morphology and distribution which are immunoreactive for two other proopiomelanocortin peptides, alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone and adrenocorticotrophic hormone, were also observed in similar distributions during the same developmental period. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that cells within the germinal zone transiently synthesize proopiomelanocortin, which is further processed to yield these three peptide products. This finding may be important in understanding the role of proopiomelanocortin-derived peptides in neural development.