Abstract
THE presence of growth hormone release inhibiting factor, somatostatin, in extrahypothalamic sites in the brain1,2 suggests that, in common with several other biologically active peptides, it may be a neurotransmitter or modulator of central nervous system (CNS) neuronal activity in addition to its neuroen-docrine role. Direct actions of somatostatin on the CNS have been demonstrated following systemic3, cerebroventricular4, direct intracerebellar5 and microiontophoretic6,7 application. Furthermore, somatostatin is concentrated in nerve terminals in various regions of the CNS8,9 and can be released in a calcium-dependent manner from slices of rat amygdala and hypothalamus10. The exact nature of the postsynaptic action of somatostatin on neuronal excitability remains unclear, however, and there have been reports of both excitatory5,7 and inhibitory6,11 effects. We report here our investigations on the action of somatostatin on cell bodies of hippocampal CA1 and CA2 pyramidal neurones. These neurones lie postsynaptically to high densities of nerve terminals shown by immuno-histochemical techniques to contain somatostatin-like material12. Somatostatin had a potent excitatory effect.
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DODD, J., KELLY, J. Is somatostatin an excitatory transmitter in the hippocampus?. Nature 273, 674–675 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/273674a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/273674a0
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