Summary
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1.
The measurement of cellular mRNA content by quantitativein situ hybridization is a valuable approach to the study of gene expression in brain since this tissue exhibits a high degree of phenotypic heterogeneity.
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2.
The cellular content of vasopressin and oxytocin mRNA in hypothalamo-neurohypophysial system neurons was altered by maintaining rats for 24 hr on 2% sodium chloride water.
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3.
Statistical and graphical techniques were then used to analyze cell by cell how mRNA levels were altered as a result of osmotic stimulation. We propose that the negative binomial probability distribution is a suitable model to describe how mRNA content varies across a defined cell population. For both measures of oxytocin and vasopressin mRNA levels, maximum-likelihood estimation indicated that this model adequately described empirical findings obtained from rats drinking tap water or salt water.
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4.
Both graphical and statistical analyses suggested how the defined neural system responds to osmotic stimulation: mRNA content was altered as a multiplicative function of “initial state.” The utility and limitations of the quantitative approach are discussed.
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McCabe, J.T., Kawata, M., Sano, Y. et al. Quantitativein situ hybridization to measure single-cell changes in vasopressin and oxytocin mRNA levels after osmotic stimulation. Cell Mol Neurobiol 10, 59–71 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00733636
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00733636