Developmental pattern of neurotensin content in rat hypothalamic neurons cultured in serum-free medium: comparison with in vivo data.

Neurotensinergic cells were visualized by immunocytochemistry in rat hypothalamic cultures grown in serum-free medium for 12 days. They represented 0.03% of the total cell population. The pattern observed for the evolution of neurotensin content in hypothalamic cultures, from day 5 to day 21 (7-fold increase), was similar to that observed in the rat hypothalamus during the corresponding period of in vivo ontogeny, from birth to 19 days postnatal (6-fold increase).