Amygdaloid Corticotropin‐Releasing Factor Targets Locus Coeruleus Dendrites: Substrate for the Co‐ordination of Emotional and Cognitive Limbs of the Stress Response

作者：Elisabeth J. Van Bockstaele, Eric E.O. Colago, Rita J. Valentino · 发表于：Journal of Neuroendocrinology · 年份：1998 · DOI：10.1046/j.1365-2826.1998.00254.x · 被引用次数：317 · 研究领域：Stress Responses and Cortisol、Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research、Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), the neurohormone that initiates the endocrine limb of the stress response via its actions on the anterior pituitary, also acts as a neurotransmitter in the noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) to activate this system during stress. Because the central nucleus of the amygdala contains numerous CRF-immunoreactive neurones, the present study examined whether CRF projections from the central nucleus of the amygdala target LC dendrites, thereby providing a mechanism for limbic-CRF modulation of brain noradrenergic activity. Retrograde tracers injected into the rostrolateral pericoerulear region, where CRF-immunoreactive fibres are dense, labelled numerous CRF-immunoreactive neurones in the central nucleus of the amygdala. Consistent with this, ultrastructural analysis of the rostrolateral pericoerulear region in sections that were dually labelled for an anterograde tracer (biotinylated dextran amine, BDA) injected into the central nucleus of the amygdala and CRF immunoreactivity revealed that a substantial percentage (35%) of amygdaloid axon terminals were CRF-immunoreactive. These terminals formed synaptic specializations with unlabelled dendrites that were more often of the asymmetric (excitatory) type. Additionally, ultrastructural analysis of sections that were dually labelled to visualize CRF-and tyrosine hydroxlase-immunoreactivity demonstrated synaptic specializations between CRF-immunoreactive terminals and LC dendrites in the rostrolate...