Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.1.7 (acetylcholinesterase)
 28,390 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The administration of monosodium-L-glutamate (MSG) during the neonatal period is known to result in central nervous system lesions in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus and the retina. Rodents so treated exhibit behavioral deficts and endocrinopathies including obesity, hypogonadism, hypothyroidism, pituitary atrophy, tail automutilation and diminished locomotor activity. Assessment of endocrine status revealed normal serum levels of glucagon, thyroid-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, and diminished levels of thyroid hormones and growth hormone in MSG-treated rats. Prolactin levels were elevated in the glutamate-treated male rats. Within the brain hypothalamic levels of thyrotropin-releasing hormone, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone, and somatostatin were unchanged. Measurement of neurotransmitters and neurotransmitter-related enzymes in individual hypothalamic nuclei derived from MSG-treated rats revealed normal levels of norepinephrine, serotonin and glutamic acid decarboxylase, but reduced levels of choline acetyltransferase and dopamine in the arcuate nucleus and median eminence. Histochemical methods for visualization of dopamine and acetylcholinesterase in the mediobasal hypothalamus confirmed these findings. The MSG-treated animals exhibited a normal diurnal rhythm of pineal serotonin N-acetyltransferase activity. These data indicate that the MSG-induced endocrine deficiency syndrome results at least partly from destruction of cholinergic and dopamingeric tuberoinfundibular systems in the hypothalamus.
 ...
PMID:Models of neuroendocrine regulation: use of monosodium glutamate as an investigational tool. 3 35

1. Innervation of the mammalian pineal gland is mainly sympathetic. Pineal synthesis of melatonin and its levels in the circulation are thought to be under strict adrenergic control of serotonin N-acetyltransferase (NAT). In addition, several putative pineal neurotransmitters modulate melatonin synthesis and secretion. 2. In this review, we summarize what is currently known on the pineal cholinergic system. Cholinergic signaling in the rat pineal gland is suggested based on the localization of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE), as well as muscarinic and nicotinic ACh binding sites in the gland. 3. A functional role of ACh may be regulation of pineal synaptic ribbon numbers and modulation of melatonin secretion, events possibly mediated by phosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis and activation of protein kinase C via muscarinic ACh receptors (mAChRs). 4. We also present previously unpublished data obtained using primary cultures of rat pinealocytes in an attempt to get more direct information on the effects of cholinergic stimulus on pinealocyte melatonin secretion. These studies revealed that the cholinergic effects on melatonin release are restricted mainly to intact pineal glands since they were not readily detected in primary pinealocyte cultures.
 ...
PMID:Cholinergic signaling in the rat pineal gland. 859 Apr 50