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American Zoologist 1993 33(2):200-211; doi:10.1093/icb/33.2.200
© 1993 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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The Sites and Consequences of Melatonin Binding in Mammals1,2

ERIC L. BITTMAN
Department of Zoology and Program in Neuroscience and Behavior, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts 01003

SYNOPSIS. Melatonin, a hormone of the pineal gland, exerts multiple effects upon the brain-pituitary axis of vertebrates. Among mammals, the best documented physiological roles of melatonin involve the photoperiodic induction of reproductive and other seasonal adjustments. Daylength regulates the effects of gonadal steroids upon gonadotropin secretion and sexual behavior as well as the frequency of a neural generator of GnRH pulses. In hamsters, these effects are paralleled by changes in GnRH, AVP and beta-endorphin immunoreactivity, and in opiate receptor density in the medial amygdala. Autoradiographic studies indicate a high concentration of 2[125I]-iodomelatonin binding sites in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of some photoperiodic mammals but not in others. In contrast, such binding sites have been found in the pars tuberalis of all seasonally breeding mammals studied to date.


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