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Excitatory action of hypothalamic substance P on spinal motoneurones of newborn rats

Abstract

IT is generally believed that the primary afferent fibres constituting the spinal dorsal roots, form excitatory synapses with the neurones in the spinal cord and the brain stem1. Several substances have been considered as the neurotransmitters of the primary afferent neurones1–5. We have found that an undecapeptide, substance P, which has been isolated from bovine hypothalamus6,7, exists in the dorsal root of bovine spinal nerve in an amount 10–30 times larger than that in the ventral root8,9, and that this peptide exerts a potent excitatory action on the spinal motoneurones of the frog8,10.

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KONISHI, S., OTSUKA, M. Excitatory action of hypothalamic substance P on spinal motoneurones of newborn rats. Nature 252, 734–735 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/252734a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/252734a0

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