Proopiomelanocortin
From Psychology Wiki
Community portal · Tasks to do · News · Help
Clinical · Educational · Ind&Org · Other fields · Professional · Transpersonal · World
Assessment |
Biopsychology |
Comparative |
Cognitive |
Developmental |
Language
Personality |
Philosophy |
Research Methods |
Social |
Statistics
Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology
| Proopiomelanocortin | |
|---|---|
| Symbol(s): | POMC |
| Locus: | 2 p23 |
| EC number | [1] |
| EntrezGene | 5443 |
| OMIM | 176830 |
| RefSeq | NM_000939 |
| UniProt | P01189 |
Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) is a precursor polypeptide with 241 amino acid residues. It is synthesised by corticotrope cells of the anterior pituitary gland, melanotrope cells of the intermediate lobe of the pituitary gland, about 3000 neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, and smaller populations of neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus and brainstem.
The large molecule of POMC is the source of several important biologically active substances. POMC can be cleaved enzymatically into the following peptides:
- adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and β-LPH in the anterior pituitary gland
- CLIP, γ-LPH, α-MSH and β-endorphin in the intermediate lobe
Each of these peptides is packaged in large dense-core vesicles that are released from the cells by exocytosis in response to appropriate stimulation. α-MSH produced by neurons in the arcuate nucleus has important roles in the regulation of appetite and sexual behavior, while α-MSH secreted from the intermediate lobe of the pituitary regulates the production of melanin. ACTH is a peptide hormone that regulates the secretion of glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex.
β-endorphin and met-enkephalin are endogenous opioid peptides with widespread actions in the brain.
- de:Proopiomelanocortin
- ru:Проопиомеланокортин
| This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Proopiomelanocortin. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
