Neurons in the cockroach nervous system reacting with antisera to the neuropeptide leucokinin I.

Antisera were raised against the myotropic neuropeptide leucokinin I, originally isolated from head extracts of the cockroach Leucophaea maderae. Processes of leucokinin I immunoreactive (LKIR) neurons were distributed throughout the nervous system, but immunoreactive cell bodies were not found in all neuromeres. In the brain, about 160 LKIR cell bodies were distributed in the protocerebrum and optic lobes (no LKIR cell bodies were found in the deuto- and tritocerebrum). In the ventral ganglia, LKIR cell bodies were seen distributed as follows: eight (weakly immunoreactive) in the subesophageal ganglion; about six larger and bilateral clusters of 5 smaller in each of the three thoracic ganglia, and in each of the abdominal ganglia, two pairs of strongly immunoreactive cell bodies were resolved. Many of the LKIR neurons could be described in detail. In the optic lobes, immunoreactive neurons innervate the medulla and accessory medulla. In the brain, three pairs of bilateral LKIR neurons supply branches to distinct sets of nonglomerular neuropil, and two pairs of descending neurons connect the posterior protocerebrum to the antennal lobes and all the ventral ganglia. Other brain neurons innervate the central body, tritocerebrum, and nonglomerular neuropil in protocerebrum. LKIR neurons of the median and lateral neurosecretory cell groups send axons to the corpora cardiaca, frontal ganglion, and tritocerebrum. In the muscle layer of the foregut (crop), bi- and multipolar LKIR neurons with axons running to the retrocerebral complex were resolved. The LKIR neurons in the abdominal ganglia form efferent axons supplying the lateral cardiac nerves, spiracles, and the segmental perivisceral organs. The distribution of immunoreactivity indicates roles for leucokinins as neuromodulators or neurotransmitters in central interneurons arborizing in different portions of the brain, visual system, and ventral ganglia. Also, a function in circuits regulating feeding can be presumed. Furthermore, a role in regulation of heart and possibly respiration can be suggested, and probably leucokinins are released from corpora cardiaca as neurohormones. Leucokinins were isolated by their myotropic action on the Leucophaea hindgut, but no innervation of this portion of the gut could be demonstrated. The distribution of leucokinin immunoreactivity was compared to immunolabeling with antisera against vertebrate tachykinins and lysine vasopressin.