Immunohistochemical distribution of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in the central nervous system of the adult rat.

The localization and distribution of somatostatin (growth hormone release-inhibiting hormone; somatotropin release-inhibiting factor) have been studied with the indirect immunofluorescence technique of Coons and collaborators and the immunoperoxidase method of Sternberger and coworkers using specific and well-characterized antibodies to somatostatin, providing semiquantitative, detailed maps of somatostatin-immunoreactive cell profiles and fibers. Our results demonstrate a widespread occurrence of somatostatin-positive nerve cell bodies and fibers throughout the central nervous system of adult, normal or colchicine-treated, albino rats. The somatostatin cell bodies varied in size from below 10 micron up to 40 micron in diameter and could have only a few or multiple processes. Dense populations of cell somata were present in many major areas including neocortex, piriform cortex, hippocampus, amygdaloid complex, nucleus caudatus, nucleus accumbens, anterior periventricular hypothalamic area, ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus, nucleus arcuatus, medial to and within the lateral lemniscus, pontine reticular nuclei, nucleus cochlearis dorsalis and immediately dorsal to the nucleus tractus solitarii. Extensive networks of nerve fibers of varying densities were also found in most areas and nuclei of the central nervous system. Both varicose fibers as well as dot- or "dust-like" structures were seen. Areas with dense or very dense networks included nucleus accumbens, nucleus caudatus, nucleus amygdaloideus centralis, most parts of the hypothalamus, nucleus parabrachialis, nucleus tractus solitarii, nucleus ambiguus, nucleus tractus spinalis nervi trigemini and the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. One exception is the cerebellum which only contained few somatostatin-positive cell bodies and nerve fibers. It should be noted that somatostatin-positive cell bodies and fibers did not always conform to the boundaries of the classical neuroanatomical nuclei, but could often be found in areas between these well-established nuclei or occupying, in varying concentrations, only parts of such nuclei. It was difficult to identify with certainty somatostatin-immunoreactive axons in the animals studied. Some pathways could, however, be demonstrated, but further experimental studies are necessary to elucidate the exact projections of the somatostatin-immunoreactive neurons in the rat central nervous system.