An antibody to des-pyroglutamyl ranatensin (RT 2-11) has been prepared and has been used to histochemically and biochemically identify ranatensin-like immunoreactivity (irRT) in the rat brain. The most most prominent stained cell group was situated in the dorsal tegmental pons. Areas of immunoreactive fibers were found in the ventral hippocampus, septal area and the hypothalamus. A similar distribution was found by radioimmunoassay data. The distribution of irRT was compared to that of bombesin-like immunoreactivity (irBN). The two peptides have different though partly overlapping distributions. Gel filtration of brain extracts show that the molecular size of irRT is similar to that of synthetic RT. However, HPLC characterization of irRT indicated that the immunoreactive material is different from synthetic RT and also different from irBN and irGRP.
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