Abstract
Ontogenetic development of α-MSH-IR (alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone-like immunoreactivity) in the brain and hypophysis of a scyliorhinid dogfish (Scyliorhinus torazame) was studied immunohistochemically. α-MSH-IR first appeared in the hypothalamus of the brain in embryos at the 43-mm stage. Thereafter, α-MSH-positive cells and fibers gradually increased in number in mainly the tuberculum posterius of the hypothalamus during the embyonic periods. In the post-hatching juveniles at the 95-mm and 125-mm stages, α-MSH-positive structures in the brain were comparable to those in adult fish, although the distributional range of α-MSH-IR structures in the brain was less extensive than those in adult fish. In the hypophysis, α-MSH-positive cells first appeared in the caudal part of the adenohypophysis at the 54-mm stage, approximately coincident with the onset of pigmentation in the skin. During ontogenesis, the MSH-producing cells increased in number straightforwardly in the adenohypophysis.
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Chiba, A., Oka, S. Ontogenetic changes of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH)-like immunoreactivity in the brain and hypophysis of a scyliorhinid dogfish (Scyliorhinus torazame): An immunohistochemical study. Fish Physiology and Biochemistry 25, 165–170 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020516206005
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020516206005
- alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH)
- brain
- dogfish
- hypophysis
- immunohistochemistry
- ontogeny