Expression of hypothalamic neurohormones and their receptors in the human eye.

Sander R Dubovy,Richard K Lee,Maria P Fernandez,Andrew V Schally,Norman L Block,Jose J Echegaray,Noriyuki Unoki,Roberto Perez,Irving Vidaurre,Mehrdad Nadji

doi:10.18632/oncotarget.18358

Sander R Dubovy, Richard K Lee + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.18358

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Journal: Oncotarget	Publication Date: Jun 3, 2017
Citations: 10	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: University of Miami

Abstract

Extrapituitary roles for hypothalamic neurohormones have recently become apparent and clinically relevant, based on the use of synthetic peptide analogs for the treatment of multiple conditions including cancers, pulmonary edema and myocardial infarction. In the eye, it has been suggested that some of these hormones and their receptors may be present in the ciliary body, iris, trabecular meshwork and retina, but their physiological role has yet to be elucidated. Our study intends to comprehensively demonstrate the expression of some hypothalamic neuroendocrine hormones and their receptors within different retinal and extraretinal structures of the human eye. Immunofluorescence, Western blot analysis, and RT-PCR were used to evaluate the qualitative and quantitative expression of Luteinizing Hormone Releasing Hormone (LHRH), Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone (GHRH), Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone (TRH), Gastrin Releasing Peptide (GRP) and Somatostatin as well as their respective receptors (LHRH-R, GHRH-R, TRH-R, GRP-R, SST-R1) in cadaveric human eye tissue and in paraffinized human eye tissue sections. The hypothalamic hormones LHRH, GHRH, TRH, GRP and Somatostatin and their respective receptors (LHRH-R, GHRH-R, TRH-R, GRPR/BB2 and SST-R1), were expressed in the conjunctiva, cornea, trabecular meshwork, ciliary body, lens, retina, and optic nerve.

Highlights

It has been known since the 1930’s that the anterior pituitary gland secretes several hormones which stimulate the thyroid, the gonads, and the adrenal cortex, and regulate various physiologic processes
Luteinizing Hormone Releasing Hormone (LHRH)-R was found to be expressed in the ciliary body non-pigmented epithelium (Figure 2D), ciliary body muscle (Figure 2E), trabecular meshwork (Figure 2F), optic nerve (Figure 2G) and neural retina (Figure 2H)
The present study systematically demonstrates the expression of LHRH, Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone (GHRH), Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone (TRH), somatostatin and Gastrin Releasing Peptide (GRP) and their receptors in retinal and extraretinal structures of the human eye, using different techniques, including RT-PCR, Western blot and Immunofluorescence

Summary

Introduction

It has been known since the 1930’s that the anterior pituitary gland secretes several hormones which stimulate the thyroid, the gonads, and the adrenal cortex, and regulate various physiologic processes. In the 1950’s, G.W. Harris assembled anatomical and physiological evidence suggesting that the hypothalamic portion of the brain secreted neurohormones that traversed the hypophyseal portal vessels to regulate secretion of pituitary hormones [1]. The discovery, isolation, structural identification, chemical synthesis, and information gathered from animal and human studies, regarding several of these hypothalamic hormones, established their regulatory function in the process of mediation of release of various anterior pituitary hormones [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]

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