Estradiol causes dose-dependent increase in galanin-like immunoreactivity in both ventral and dorsal hippocampus

• The purpose of the study was to investigate the dose- and duration effects of estradiol treatment on galanin-like immunoreactivity in ventral and dorsal rat hippocampus. Ovariectomized rats were treated three, 20 or 60 days with low or high pharmacological doses of estradiol or with carrier only. Galanin-like immunoreactivity was measured with radioimmunoassay using antiserum GalRat4 raised against rat galanin. ANOVA revealed a significant effect from dose (p<0.001) and from duration (p<0.001) of estrogen treatment, but not from region, i.e. ventral or dorsal hippocampus. With the high pharmacological dose, galanin-like immunoreactivity increased more than 10-fold in comparison with the vehicle-treated in dorsal hippocampus and about 6-fold in ventral hippocampus. The increment is most likely due to an effect in the noradrenergic galanin-expressing neurons originating in locus ceruleus. The functional interpretation of these results is dependent on the yet unknown role of galanin in their hippocampal nerve terminals.

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MEDICINE

MEDICIN

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