Immunoreactive corticotropin-releasing hormone in the hypothalamoinfundibular tract

Ovine corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRF)-like immunoreactivity has been examined in the rat hypothalamus by light microscopy. Immunoreactivity was found in nerve fibers of the median eminence, mainly in the external zone around the portal vessels. In rats pretreated with colchicine or with hypothalamic knife cuts, small to moderate sized cells with two (bipolar) or rarely more (multipolar) dendrites, showing CRF-like immunoreactivity were present in the anterior and medial parvocellular subdivisions of the paraventricular nucleus. Scattered CRF-like immunopositive cells were found in the periventricular and medial preoptic nuclei. CRF-like immunoreactivity was clearly enhanced in the median eminence and paraventricular nucleus 8-10 days after bilateral adrenalectomy. A variety of hypothalamic transections had to be performed to determine reliably the topography of CRF-like nerve fibers projecting to the stalk-median eminence. Axons left the paraventricular nucleus in a lateral direction, turned ventrally in the lateral hypothalamus then medially as they approached the base of the hypothalamus above and behind the optic chiasm (lateral retrochiasmatic area). Fibers reached the median eminence by traveling caudally and medially from the rostral half of the lateral retrochiasmatic area. Scattered fibers were present in the retroinfundibular (posterior) portion of the median eminence. No immunoreactive fibers remained in the stalk-median eminence 1 or 4 weeks after transection of that loop-like pathway of CRF-containing fibers in the lateral retrochiasmatic area.