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Two types of cholinergic innervation in cortex, one co-localized with vasoactive intestinal polypeptide

Nature volume 309, pages 153–155 (1984)Cite this article

Abstract

The existence of cholinergic neuronal cell bodies in mammalian cerebral cortex was long the subject of much controversy (see ref. 1 for review). Recently, however, a specific cholinergic marker, the acetylcholine synthesizing enzyme, choline acetyltransferase (ChAT, E.C.2.3.1.6), was demonstrated by immunohistochemical methods to be present in bipolar neurones in rat cortex2,3. Here we show that at least 80% of these intrinsic cholinergic neurones also contain immunoreactivity for vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), a neuroactive peptde found to be present in a subpopulation of cortical neurones4. On the other hand, we find that the ChAT-positive cells in the basal forebrain, which are another major source of cholinergic innervation of the cortex5–8, contain no detectable VIP-immunoreactivity. In addition, we have observed by both light and electron microscopy that some VIP- and some ChAT-positive structures in cortex are closely associated with blood vessels.

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  1. Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Felix Eckenstein & Robert W. Baughman

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  1. Felix Eckenstein
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Eckenstein, F., Baughman, R. Two types of cholinergic innervation in cortex, one co-localized with vasoactive intestinal polypeptide. Nature 309, 153–155 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/309153a0

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