The Study of Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase Activating Polypeptide (PACAP)-like Immunoreactivity in the Brain of a Teleost, Stargazer, Uranoscopus japonicus

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Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP), a member of the secretin/glucagon/vasoactive intestinal polypeptide family of peptides, consists of a 38-residue (PACAP 38) and a truncated 27-residue (PACAP 27) form that play several roles in mammals. Recently, we isolated a PACAP-like peptice with a sequence highly homologous with that of tetrapod PACAP from the brain of a teleost, the blue spotted-stargazer (Gnathagnus elongatus). In this study, a PACAP-like peptide obtained from the brain of the stargazer, Uranoscopus japonicus, was examined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electro-phoresis and Western blotting analysis using an anti-PACAP 27 serum. The stargazer PACAP-like peptide and synthetic human PACAPs were reacted with this antiserum. The distribution of PACAP-like immunoreactivity in the stargazer brain was also studied immunohistochemically using the peroxidase-antiperoxidase method. PACAP-like immunoreactive (LI) cells were found in the nucleus preopticus, pars parvicellularis of the hypothalamus. PACAP-LI nerve fibers and terminals were observed in the anterior neurohypophysis and in the rostral pars distalis, and many PACAP-LI nerve fibers were seen in the medulla oblongata. These results suggest that PACAP-like peptide may be involved in pituitary regulatin and/or other neural functions in the stargazer brain.
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