Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the release of neuropeptides in the spinal cord A.W. Duggan. This chapter addresses three questions in studies of the central release of neuropeptides: (1) the cell types containing and releasing a particular compound, the adequate stimuli producing release; (2) the sites of release, the events interposed between the invasion of a terminal by an action potential and the actual process of release; and (3) physiological controls of release and the spread and inactivation of released compounds. Although coexistence of a peptide with another peptide or a small neuroactive compound appears to be common, co-release from defined fiber types has yet to be demonstrated experimentally in the spinal cord. The heterogeneity of the spinal cord, together with the need to stimulate many nerve terminals to detect release, has prevented such experiments. The situation in the periphery is much more favorable. It is similarly unknown whether differing impulse patterns favour release of one class of compound when compared with another. Measurements of the spatial spread of neuropeptides after release has given unexpected results, and has given support to proposals that some neuroactive compounds diffuse away from sites of release, and thus can activate receptors relatively distant from such sites. The neuropeptides studied to date appear to differ in such behavior and much work remains to clarify these distinctions.
Published Version
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