Melatonin receptors: Current status, facts, and hypothesis

Journal Article · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Life Sciences; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3205(90)90020-R· OSTI ID:6921837

Stankov, B; Reiter, R J ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio (USA)

Great progress has been made in the identification of melatonin binding sites, commonly identified as melatonin receptors by many authors, in recent years. The bulk of these studies have investigated the sites using either autoradiographic and biochemical techniques with the majority of the experiments being done on the rat, Djungarian and Syrian hamster, and sheep, although human tissue has also been employed. Many of the studies have identified melatonin binding in the central nervous system with either tritium- or iodine-labelled ligands. The latter ligand seems to provide the most reproducible and consistent data. Of the central neural tissues examined, the suprachiasmatic nuclei are most frequently mentioned as a location for melatonin binding sites although binding seems to be widespread in the brain. The other tissue that has been prominently mentioned as a site for melatonin binding is the pars tuberalis of the anterior pituitary gland. There may be time-dependent variations in melatonin binding densities in both neural and pituitary gland tissue. Very few attempts have been made to identify melatonin binding outside of the central nervous system despite the widespread actions of melatonin. Preliminary experiments have been carried out on the intracellular second messengers which mediate the actions of melatonin.

• OSTI ID: 6921837
• Journal Information: Life Sciences; (USA), Vol. 46:14; ISSN 0024-3205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
MELATONIN
RECEPTORS
AUTORADIOGRAPHY
BIOCHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
HAMSTERS
IODINE ISOTOPES
MAN
RATS
SHEEP
TIME DEPENDENCE
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
AMINES
ANIMALS
AROMATICS
AZAARENES
AZOLES
DOMESTIC ANIMALS
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INDOLES
ISOTOPES
KINETICS
MAMMALS
MEMBRANE PROTEINS
NERVOUS SYSTEM
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PRIMATES
PROTEINS
PYRROLES
REACTION KINETICS
RODENTS
RUMINANTS
TRYPTAMINES
VERTEBRATES
550201* - Biochemistry- Tracer Techniques