Immunohistochemical localization of gastrin-cholecystokinin-like material in the central nervous system of the migratory locust

Abstract

Brain, corpora cardiaca (CC)-corpora allata (CA) complex, suboesophageal ganglion, thoracic and abdominal ganglia of adults, larvae and embryos of Locusta migratoria have been immunohistochemically screened for gastrin cholecystokinin (CCK-8(s]-like material. In adult, numerous immunoreactive neurons and nerve fibres are located, with a marked symmetry, in various parts of the brain and throughout the ventral nerve cord. In the median part of the brain, cell bodies belonging neither to cellular type A1 nor A2 (following Victoria blue-paraldehyde fuchsin staining) are immunopositive; their processes terminate in the upper protocerebral neuropile. In lateral parts of the brain, external cell bodies send axons into CC and some up to CA, other internal have processes which terminate in the neuropile of the brain. Two of these latter cells react also with methionine-enkephalin antiserum. In the ventral nerve cord, in addition to numerous perikarya, immunoreactive arborizations terminate in the neuropile or in close association with the sheath, at the dorsal part of all ganglia. This CCK-8(s) distribution pattern is observed only at the two last larval instars, but is precociously detected in the abdominal nerve cord of embryos, one day before hatching.