[Michel Jouvet, from the discovery of paradoxical sleep and muscle atonia to the role of neuropeptides]. / Michel Jouvet, de la découverte du sommeil paradoxal et de l'atonie musculaire au rôle des neuropeptides.

This article focuses on the contributions made by Michel Jouvet about the neurons responsible for generating the muscle atonia of paradoxical sleep (REM sleep). He was the first to describe the neurons responsible for muscle atonia during paradoxical sleep using "pontine" cats (in which the forebrain has been removed down to the pons) and localized pontine lesions. Also discussed is the research going on in the 1980s, when Michel Jouvet was hunting for the hypnogenic factor. At that time, he thought that it was secreted by the hypophysis; but this factor finally turned out to be controlled by the hypocretin/orexin and melanin concentrating hormone neurones located in the lateral hypothalamus. Several unforgettable moments with Michel Jouvet are described which occurred between 1983 and his last moments with us.

TITLE: Michel Jouvet, de la découverte du sommeil paradoxal et de l'atonie musculaire au rôle des neuropeptides. ABSTRACT: Cet article porte sur les contributions que Michel Jouvet a apportées à la connaissance des systèmes responsables de l'atonie musculaire du sommeil paradoxal. Michel Jouvet a été le premier à décrire les structures du tronc cérébral responsables de l'atonie musculaire pendant le sommeil paradoxal à l'aide de chats dits « pontiques ¼ (dont le cerveau, après ablation, est réduit à sa partie postérieure à partir du pont de Varole) ou porteurs de lésions localisées au niveau du pont. Les recherches en cours dans les années 1980, alors que Michel Jouvet était à la recherche du facteur hypnogénique, sont également abordées. À cette époque, Jouvet pensait que ce facteur était sécrété par l'hypophyse mais il s'est finalement avéré que deux types de populations de neurones antagonistes, les neurones à hypocrétine/orexine et ceux à hormone de mélanoconcentration situés dans l'hypothalamus latéral, étaient impliqués. Plusieurs moments inoubliables avec Michel Jouvet sont décrits, qui se sont déroulés entre 1983 et ses derniers moments.

Abba J. Kastin, the Zeitgeist, and the inception of Peptides.

It is wonderful to be able to record the establishment and growth of a professional journal after thirty-five years, and to celebrate the splendid career of Abba J. Kastin as an editor as well as a scientist and educator. Abba is also an enriched human being who is both sophisticated and simple, and we are proud to be life-long friends of his. This Festschrift reviews how we (the Olsons) started our careers as neuropsychologists, our interactions with Abba, reflection of the job as neuroscientists, and discussion of the growth and future of Peptides with the new publishing fads.

A decade of hypocretins: past, present and future of the neurobiology of arousal.

In 1998, two groups independently identified the hypocretins, also known as orexins, as two hypothalamic peptides derived from the same precursor expressed in a few thousand neurones restricted to the perifornical area. A decade later, an amazing set of discoveries has demonstrated a key role for this neurotransmitter system in arousal and beyond. Here I review some of the experiments that led to these discoveries and the implications in the neurobiology of the hypothalamus and our understanding of brain arousal.

The first PP supper--Camelot at Bispebjerg.

In the early seventies of the last century, in a temporary building called "Sukkertoppen" at Bispebjerg Hospital, a group of devoted, young medical doctors and a couple of students together with a team of highly skilled laboratory technicians gathered around the "senior" Jens F. Rehfeld, who had barely turned thirty years of age. Each person got his own peptide, raised antibodies, iodinated the peptide and established a radioimmunoassay with which he could then conquer the world of gastrointestinal hormones. It was a unique time, where old hormones had just been chemically characterized and could now be subjected to immunochemical measurements and characterization for the first time. It was also a period when a whole host of new biologically active peptides were being discovered, and basically anything you did with "your" peptide was exciting news for the scientific community. The concept of neuropeptides was being established and Jens Frederik and his brave scientific knights were in the middle of it all. The period ended in the summer of 1976, when Rehfeld moved his court to the University of Aarhus and the others scattered--each to establish their own scientific group.

A brief history of hypocretin/orexin and narcolepsy.

The hypothalamic peptides named the orexins, or hypocretins, were discovered in 1998. In 1999 it was established that genetic narcolepsy could be caused by mutations in the genes synthesizing these peptides or their receptors. In September of 2000 it was found that most human narcolepsy is caused by loss of hypocretin cells, most likely as a result of a degenerative process. This paper reviews these events and their implications for our understanding of brain arousal and motor control systems.

A review of the role of neurosecretion in the control of juvenile hormone synthesis: a tribute to Berta Scharrer.

In the 1950s, Berta Scharrer predicted that neurosecretions from the brain regulated corpus allatum activity based upon the observation of the change in localization of neurosecretory material in the brain and change in gland activity after severance of nerves between the brain and corpus allatum. Isolation and characterization of neuropeptide regulators of juvenile hormone production by the corpora allata in the late 1980s has confirmed this prediction. Both a stimulatory allatotropin and an inhibitory allatostatin have been isolated from moth brains. Two families of allatostatins, both quite different from each other and that of moths, have been isolated from cockroaches and crickets. The wide distribution of these peptides in the nervous system, in nerves to visceral muscle, in endocrine cells of the midgut and in blood cells, indicate multifunctions in the insects in which they are allatoregulatory. Some of these other functions have been demonstrated in these insects and in insects in which these neuropeptides occur but do not act as corpus allatum regulators. For the latter group, the neuropeptide regulators of the corpora allata have yet to be isolated. The families of neurosecretory regulators will continue to grow.

Gastrointestinal endocrinology.

During the last quarter of this century gastrointestinal endocrinology has grown explosively. In 1970, three hormones (secretin, gastrin, and cholecystokinin) were identified and by authorities in the field considered sufficient to explain the entire hormonal regulation of digestion. That was some underestimation. Today the gut is known to express more than 20 different hormonal/regulatory peptide systems. Their widespread cellular occurrence, gene expression cascades, secretory mechanisms, receptors and receptor binding, as well as normal and pathophysiological effects are now also fairly well known owing to the marked progress in basic sciences and biochemical technologies (immuno and peptides chemistry, molecular and cell biology). Thus, the gut is now recognized as the largest endocrine organ of the body; and a substantial part of the gastroenterologic research over the latest decades has been devoted to gut hormones. The following review describes the recent development, with emphasis on gastrointestinal peptide systems that have been studied and even discovered in Denmark. Hence, as reflected by the number of doctoral theses and PhD studies (> 50 since 1974), gastrointestinal endocrinology has been a major research area in this country in the past 25 years.