Central and sensory galanin neurons and functional aspects

Galanin has during the last five years emerged as an interesting and potentially important peptide found in numerous neuronal systems both in the brain, spinal cord and periphery. Although it is present in high and easily detectable levels in several areas, for example in the hypothalamus, one remarkable feature is that in other systems of normal rats the levels are very low, and only after manipulations is it possible to visualize galanin and galanin mRNA in these neurons with immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization techniques. This is the case with many primary sensory neurons and the cholinergic forebrain neurons. In various types of functional assays galanin has been shown to exert actions which generally are of inhibitory nature