Immunocytology of Luteinizing Hormone-Releasing Hormone

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Abstract
Investigations in animals and humans attest to the fact that immunocytochemistry is capable of identifying LH-RH [luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone] in situ. Immunocytochemistry can resolve questions about the origin of fibers whose terminals are observed, about assembly of LH-RH in neurons, about extrahypothalamic LH-RH pathways, and about LH-RH receptors at target sites. A long existing controversy over the issue of perikaryal localization of LH-RH is only beginning to reach a state of resolution. It is clear from radioimmunoassay of LH-RH in the ME [median eminence] and hypothalamic nuclei that the ME contains more than 50% of the entire content of LH-RH found in the CNS. Allowing for possible loss of LH-RH during processing of tissue, it is conceivable that immunocytochemistry detects only LH-RH fibers in the ME where the hormone is more concentrated, but not within the neuronal perikarya. The sensitivity of various immunocytochemical techniques is a consideration of importance to the interpretation of available data. Notwithstanding the wide ramifications of LH-RH fiber distribution to extrahypothalamic regions, the most prominent localization of LH-RH fibers lies in the pathways which terminate on the vascular elements of the pituitary portal plexus.