FIND ARTICLE

HIPOCRETINS (OREXINS) AND THEIR RECEPTORS: STRUCTURE, LOCALIZATION AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF ACTIONS

Hypocretins, also known as orexins, are hypothalamic peptides that have been implicated in a variety of behaviors, e.g. food-seeking and feeding, arousal and sleep, reaction to stress. Disturbances in the central hypocretin neurotransmission are believed to underlie narcolepsy. It has also been postulated that hypocretins play an important role in the regulation of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, energy homeostasis, acquisition and learning of reward system-stimulating signals.

MELANOPSIN: A NEWLY DISCOVERED PHOTORECEPTOR CONTROLLING CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS

The visual system is now known to be composed of two anatomically and functionally distinct pathways, i.e. the image-forming and non-image-forming. Photoreception of the image-forming pathway begins with rods and cones, classical photoreceptors, whereas that for the non-image-forming pathway is predominantly based on intrinsically photosensitive retinal cells containing the newly discovered photo- pigment – melanopsin.

The Editorial Board
Andrzej Łukaszyk - przewodniczący, Zofia Bielańska-Osuchowska, Szczepan Biliński, Mieczysław Chorąży, Aleksander Koj, Włodzimierz Korochoda, Leszek Kuźnicki, Aleksandra Stojałowska, Lech Wojtczak

Editorial address:
Katedra i Zakład Histologii i Embriologii Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Poznaniu, ul. Święcickiego 6, 60-781 Poznań, tel. +48 61 8546453, fax. +48 61 8546440, email: mnowicki@ump.edu.pl

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