Nicotinic receptor alpha subunits in magnocellular neurons of rat hypothalamus

Mab35 is a monoclonal antibody against one specific immunogenic region in alpha1, alpha3, alpha5 subunits of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (N-AChR) of a variety of species. It has previously been claimed that N-AChR-like immunoreactivity (-LI) identified by mab35 is present in vasopressin-containing magnocellular neurons. However, we show here by double immunofluorescence labelling that mab35 immunoreactivity is predominantly localized to oxytocinergic rather than vasopressinergic magnocellular neurons. We further infer that mab35 predominantly stained the alpha3 and/or alpha5 subunits in rat oxytocinergic neurons, and suggest that the unbalanced distribution of these subunits may contribute to some specific physiological properties of oxytocinergic neurons.