MRNA expression of tachykinins and tachykinin receptors in different human tissues

The tachykinins substance P, neurokinin A and neurokinin B are involved in many pathophysiological processes. A reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was used to analyse the expression of TACI and TAC3, the genes that encode substance P/neutrokinin A and neurokinin B, respectively, and the genes encoding the tachykinin NK1, NK2 and NK3 receptors in different human tissues. The data show that tachykinins and their receptors mRNAs are broadly distributed in different human tissues being present in neuronal and non-neuronal types of cells. The presence of TAC3 and the tachykinin NK3 receptor (TACR3) in a wide variety of peripheral tissues argue for a still unexplored role of this ligand-receptor pair in mediating visceral effects of tachykinins. We found, for the first time, that TAC3 and TACR3 mRNAs are expressed in human airways and pulmonary arteries and veins, providing further evidence for the involvement of this system in lung physiopathology. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.