Immunoreactivity to Cocaine- and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript in the Enteric Nervous System of the Pig and Wild Boar Stomach

Abstract

Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) is a recently discovered peptide inducing strong anxiogenic-like effect. CART distribution and its role(s) at periphery are not well understood. Immunohistochemisty was utilized to investigate the distribution patterns of CART in the stomach of the pig and wild boar. Double immunohistochemisty was applied to elucidate whether CART-immunoreactive (IR) neuronal elements coexpress galanin, substance P (SP) and neuropeptide Y (NPY). In the pig stomach, different proportions of CART-IR myenteric neurons were found in the antrum (42.3±3.5%), corpus (18.0±1.9%) and pylorus (33.2±3.0%). CART-IR myeneric neurons were also found in the antrum, corpus and pylorus of the wild boar stomach (41.7±3.2, 36.0±2.2 and 35.8±3.5%; respectively). In both species, none of gastric submucous neurons were CART-IR; however, CART-IR nerve fibres encircled submucous perikarya. In all portions of the pig and wild boar stomach, CART-IR nerve fibres were frequently found in the smooth muscle layer as well as in the lamina muscularis mucosae. In all regions of the pig and wild boar stomach, the expression of galanin and SP was found in CART-IR myenteric neurons and smooth muscle-supplying nerve fibres. CART/NPY coexpression was not found in the porcine stomach; however, in different regions of the wild boar stomach, subpopulations of CART-IR/NPY-IR myenteric neurons were noted. In conclusion, in this study, the existence and distribution patterns of CART in discrete regions of the pig and wild boar stomach were described in details. Colocalization studies revealed that in both animal species, a functional cooperation of CART with several neuropeptides is likely.