JPET

Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Maynert, E. W.
Right arrow Articles by de Lorenzo, A. J. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Maynert, E. W.
Right arrow Articles by de Lorenzo, A. J. D.
Journal of Pharmacology And Experimental Therapeutics, Vol. 144, Issue 3, 385-392, 1964
Copyright © 1964 by American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

THE PRESENCE OF NOREPINEPHRINE AND 5-HYDROXVTRYPTAMINE IN VESICLES FROM DISRUPTED NERVE-ENDING PARTICLES

E. W. Maynert 1, Roberto Levi 1, and A. J. D. de Lorenzo 1

1 Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and Division of Neurocytology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

Differential centrifugation of disrupted nerve-ending particles (NEPs) from rat brain stem yielded a vesicular fraction containing norepinephrine (NE) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). For starting material NEPs purified by gradient density centrifugation were less satisfactory than the crude "mitochondrial" (P2) fraction of homogenates. To disrupt the NEPs, a wide range of conditions of hypotonicity and sonification was investigated. Strenuous sonification caused an almost complete solubilization of the NE and 5-HT.

Under optimal conditions the vesicular (P2-V) fractions obtained by ultrasonic or hypotonic disruption contained about 25% of the NE, 20% of the 5-HT and 10% of the protein in the crude NEP preparation.

Electron microscopic examination revealed that the P2-V fractions from both ultrasonic and hypotonic disruption were composed almost entirely of vesicles of about the same size and appearance as those seen at synaptic junctions. In fixed and sectioned material the dense-core vesicles often associated with adrenergic nerve endings were exceedingly rare. At least 3 morphologically distinct kinds of vesicles could be observed in negatively stained P2-V preparations. They were differentiated primarily on the basis of the thickness of their walls, although one type also was distinguishable by a matrix containing many small granules. Vesicles extruding a granular material were observed rather frequently.

Submitted on December 16, 1963
Accepted on February 5, 1964




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ScienceHome page
E. De Robertis
Ultrastructure and Cytochemistry of the Synaptic Region
Science, May 19, 1967; 156(3777): 907 - 914.
[PDF]

Home page
 ScienceHome page
G. K. Aghajanian and F. E. Bloom
Electron-Microscopic Autoradiography of Rat Hypothalamus after Intraventricular H3-Norepinephrine
Science, July 15, 1966; 153(3733): 308 - 310.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
All ASPET Journals Molecular Pharmacology Pharmacological Reviews
Molecular Interventions Drug Metabolism and Disposition

Copyright © 1964 by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.