Melatonin receptors: distribution in mammalian brain and their respective putative functions

Melatonin, through its different receptors, has pleiotropic functions in mammalian brain. Melatonin is secreted mainly by the pineal gland and exerts its effects via receptor-mediated and non-receptor-mediated actions. With recent advancement in neuroanatomical mapping, we may now understand better...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain Structure and Function 2017-09, Vol.222 (7), p.2921-2939
Main Authors: Ng, Khuen Yen, Leong, Mun Kit, Liang, Huazheng, Paxinos, George
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alzheimer's disease
Anatomy
Animals
Anxiety
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brain
Brain - metabolism
Brain architecture
Cell Biology
Central nervous system
Cerebellum
Cerebral cortex
Circadian rhythm
Circadian rhythms
Dorsal raphe nucleus
G protein-coupled receptors
Habenula
Humans
Huntington's disease
Hypothalamus
Mammals
Mammals - anatomy & histology
Melatonin
Melatonin receptors
Mesencephalon
Movement disorders
Neurodegenerative diseases
Neurology
Neurosciences
Pain
Parkinson's disease
Periaqueductal gray area
Pineal gland
Pituitary
Receptors, Melatonin - physiology
Retina
Review
Sleep
Thalamic reticular nucleus
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Summary:Melatonin, through its different receptors, has pleiotropic functions in mammalian brain. Melatonin is secreted mainly by the pineal gland and exerts its effects via receptor-mediated and non-receptor-mediated actions. With recent advancement in neuroanatomical mapping, we may now understand better the localizations of the two G protein-coupled melatonin receptors MT1 and MT2. The abundance of these melatonin receptors in respective brain regions suggests that receptor-mediated actions of melatonin might play crucial roles in the functions of central nervous system. Hence, this review aims to summarize the distribution of melatonin receptors in the brain and to discuss the putative functions of melatonin in the retina, cerebral cortex, reticular thalamic nucleus, habenula, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, periaqueductal gray, dorsal raphe nucleus, midbrain and cerebellum. Studies on melatonin receptors in the brain are important because cumulative evidence has pointed out that melatonin receptors not only play important physiological roles in sleep, anxiety, pain and circadian rhythm, but might also be involved in the pathogenesis of a number of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.
ISSN:1863-2653
1863-2661
0340-2061
DOI:10.1007/s00429-017-1439-6