Met-enkephalin characterization in the cochlea: high-performance liquid chromatography and immunoelectron microscopy.

The present paper extends and refines previous observations of enkephalin-like immunoreactivity in the guinea-pig cochlea. Firstly, Met-enkephalin was identified and a quantitative evaluation was made by combining high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and a specific radioimmunoassay. Both the antibody specificity and the HPLC purification allowed us to demonstrate the co-existence, in the cochlea, of at least 3 opioid peptides: Met-enkephalin, Leu-enkephalin and Met-enkephalin-Arg6-Phe7. Secondly, a pre-embedding immunoperoxidase technique was used on whole or dissected cochleas. Immunoreactivity was localized in efferent fibers (coming from the brainstem) in the inner spiral bundle, tunnel spiral bundle and intraganglionic spiral bundle. In the inner spiral bundle vesiculated Met-enkephalin-immunoreactive fibers could be seen synapsing with afferent auditory dendrites. It is hypothesized that these Met-enkephalin immunoreactive fibers (belonging to the lateral efferent system) could be responsible for an inhibitory effect upon the gross cochlear action potential.