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Cover picture: Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) neurons have a rapid turnover of LHRH mRNA. Preoptic area/anterior hypothalamic slice explants of postnatal rat tissues were maintained in culture for 18 d and then treated with 5,6dichloro-1-D-ribofuranosyl-benzimidazole (DRB) to inhibit transcription. Diagonal, An explant culture after 8 hr treatment with DRB was immunostained for LHRH (brown cells) and counterstained with methyl green (bright-field photomicrograph). Note that LHRH peptide is apparent despite a relatively prolonged inhibition of transcription. Top left and bottom right, Slice explant cultures were processed for in situ hybridization histochemistry using a synthetic, radiolabeled deoxynucelotide antisense probe to LHRH mRNA. Silver grains clustered over LHRH neurons, imaged under bright-field, were digitized and used to quantitate LHRH mRNA levels. On the phase-contrast photomicrographs, the magenta overlay represents optical density measurements set above an identical threshold in control explant cultures (top left) and those treated with DRB for 30 min (bottom right). The organotypic slice explant culture technique, used to isolate the dispersed in vivo population of postnatal LHRH neurons, was crucial for calculating LHRH mRNA turnover in primary LHRH cells. For details, see the article by Maurer and Wray, in this issue (pages 9481-9491).
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