[A decrease in the content of immunoreactive alpha- and gamma-endorphins in the blood and the suppression of their hypersecretion under the influence of dexamethasone in emotional stress in monkeys].

Daily administration of 12 mg of dexamethasone to monkeys during 10 days resulted in decrease of the levels of alpha- and gamma-endorphins and cortisol 7 days after the first injection. The titers of these peptides in plasma of monkeys. exposed to two hours of immobilization stress were elevated twice above basal levels.

[Radioimmunological assay of plasma levels of alpha-gamma-endorphins in healthy donors and patients with endogenous depression].

Radioimmunological procedure enabled to estimate alpha- and gamma-endorphins in human blood plasma without pre-extraction. Basal level of these neuropeptides in peripheric blood plasma of 18 healthy donors constituted: C alpha = 392 +/- 244 pg/ml and C gamma = 20.6 +/- 9.

[Detection of the pro-opiomelanocortin peptide fragments--beta-endorphin and ACTH--in the adrenals of rats and mice by immunohistochemistry].

Independent peptide fragments of pro-opiomelanocortin molecule, beta-endorphin and ACTH, have been detected immunohistochemically in the adrenal glands of rats and mice. Immunoreactive beta-endorphin and ACTH have been revealed in the adrenal medulla and reticular zone of the adrenal cortex. beta-endorphin and ACTH distribution patterns in adrenal sections were identical, which is indicative of the linked synthesis of these peptides in the adrenal gland.

[Identification of pro-opiomelanocortin and the secretion of its peptide fragments in the adrenals of the bull].

Immunoreactive alpha-, beta- and gamma-endorphins and beta-lipotropin--C-terminal peptide fragments of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC)--were discovered and measured by RIA in the bovine adrenal medulla and cortex. These peptides were also discovered in perfusates of the adrenal gland. POMC proper and some intermediate forms of its processing not differing in electrophoretic mobility from the respective molecular forms of hypophyseal POMC were identified in the medulla and cortex of the adrenals by the immunoblotting technique with the use of antiserum to beta-lipoprotein.

[Distribution of alpha-, beta- and gamma-endorphins in the forebrain and diencephalon of the rat brain (immunohistochemical study)].

The investigation performed by means of specific rabbit antisera is one of the stages for mapping peptides. This is necessary for revealing functional role of the endorphins in the CNS. The indirect method of Coons is applied in parallel series of frontal paraffin slices of the brain 10 mcm thick.