Table 1.

Distribution of NmU, NmUR1 and NmUR2 in CNS and periphery of different species

Objects	Species	Samples	Methods	Key findings	References
NmU	Rat, porcine, guinea‐pig, human being	CNS, gut	RIA	NmU occurred in ileum of all species, sacral spinal cord of rat, porcine and guinea‐pig, cerebral cortex of human being	Domin (1986) 51
NmU	Rat	CNS, peripheral tissues	RIA	NmU was high in pituitary anterior lobe, small intestine, nucleus accumbens, septum, hypothalamus, sacral spinal cord, vas deferens, ureter, fallopian tube, urethra	Domin (1987) 52
				NmU was confined to submucosal muscular layers of small intestine
NmU	Rat, guinea‐pig	Brain, intestine	RIA, IHC	In rats, NmU was highest in ileum and also stained in submucous and myenteric neurons of small intestine and in nerve fibres of these ganglionated plexuses	Augood (1988) 53
				NmU was seen in nerve terminals within ileum submucous and myenteric ganglionated plexuses of guinea‐pig
NmU	Rat	Brain, GIT	ICC	NmU was restricted to nerves fibres in the submucous and myenteric plexuses and mucosa of all gut areas except stomach, and NmU was also seen in ganglion cells of both ganglionated plexuses	Ballesta (1988) 54
				In CNS, NmU was located in fibres of all brain regions except cerebellum and stained cells were confined to rostrocaudal part of arcuate nucleus
NmU	Guinea‐pig	Small intestine	IHC	NmU was detected in myenteric and submucous nerve cells and in nerve fibres of these ganglionated plexuses	Furness (1989) 66
				NmU was co‐localized in neurons containing VIP, SP, NPY
NmU	Pig	Small intestine	ICC	NmU presented coexistence with neurons containing SP and CGRP in the plexus submucous internus of small intestine	Timmermans (1989) 67
NmU	Frog	CNS, peripheral tissues	RIA	NmU showed highest concentration in small intestine	Domin (1989) 20
NmU	Rat	CNS, digestive tract	RIA, IHC	NmU was abundant in small intestine	Honzawa (1990) 55
				NmU was confined to enteric nervous system
NmU	Pig	Small intestine	ICC	NmU was found in nerve fibres of submucosal ganglionic plexuses and coexisted with SP‐ and VIP‐containing neurons	Timmermans (1990) 68
NmU	Rat	GIT	Northern blot	NmU was detected in all regions of GIT and highest in duodenum and jejunum	Austin (1994) 56
NmU	Human being	GIT	Northern blot, RIA	NmU expression was similar throughout the GIT, and highest level of NmU was revealed in jejunum using RIA	Austin (1995) 5
NmU, NmUR1	Rat	CNS, peripheral tissues	PCR	NmU was significantly expressed in pituitary and small intestine	Fujii (2000) 59
				NmUR1 was obviously expressed in small intestine and lung
NmU, NmUR1	Human being	CNS, peripheral tissues	PCR	NmU showed high levels in intestine, pituitary, bone marrow and fetal liver	Szekeres (2000) 43
				NmUR1 was highest in adipose tissue, with moderate levels in spleen, intestine, bone marrow, lymphocytes and pancreas
NmUR2	Rat	CNS, peripheral tissues	PCR	NmUR2 was highest in uterus, with high levels in CNS, mainly in hypothalamus, medulla oblongata and spinal cord	Hosoya (2000) 38
NmU, NmUR1, NmUR2	Human being, rat	CNS, peripheral tissues	Northern blot, ISH	NmU and NmUR1 were high in the gut, NmUR1 was widely detected in periphery but cannot be detected in brain	Howard (2000) 37
				NmUR1 showed specific expression in the goblet cells of ileum, NmUR2 was restricted to specific regions of brain
NmUR1, NmUR2	Human being	CNS, peripheral tissues	PCR	NmUR1 was mainly expressed in peripheral tissues, especially in gastrointestinal and urogenital systems, with low levels in CNS such as cerebellum, DRG, hippocampus, spinal cord	Raddatz (2000) 6
				NmUR2 was high in CNS, particularly the medulla oblongata, pontine reticular formation, spinal cord and thalamus
NmU, NmUR1	Human being	CNS, peripheral tissues	Dot blot, Northern blot, PCR	NmU and NmUR1 were widely expressed, with highest levels in GIT, NmUR1 was extremely low in CNS	Hedrick (2000) 8
				NmU was detected in DCs, monocytes and B cells, NmUR1 was expressed by NK cells and T cells
NmUR2	Human being	CNS, peripheral tissues	Dot blot, Northern blot	NmUR2 was highly observed in testis and CNS, particularly spinal cord, medulla, corpus callosum, thalamus. Low levels of NmUR2 were also detected in GIT	Shan (2000) 39
NmU, NmUR1, NmUR2	Mouse	CNS, peripheral tissues	PCR	In CNS, NmU and NmUR2 were highly detected in medulla and spinal cord, but no NmUR1 expression	Funes (2002) 32
				In periphery, NmUR1 was widely expressed, with high levels in lung and various types of immune cells
NmU	Rat	Brain	ISH	NmU was significantly expressed in pituitary pars tuberalis	Ivanov (2002) 58
NmUR1, NmUR2	Human being	Peripheral tissues	PCR	NmUR1 mRNA was highest in small intestine, and NmUR2 mRNA was highest in testis	Westfall (2002) 62
NmU, NmUR2	Mouse, rat	CNS, peripheral tissues	ISH	NmU and NMUR2 showed different expression patterns between mouse and rat in hypothalamus	Graham (2003) 60
NmUR1, NmUR2	Rat	CNS	ISH	NmUR1 was detected in DRG, and NmUR2 was expressed in laminae I and II	Yu (2003) 61
NmUR1, NmUR2	Rat, human being	CNS, peripheral tissues	PCR	NmUR1 was mainly in peripheral tissues with highest levels in adipose tissues	Garlton (2004) 57
				NmUR2 was predominantly in CNS with highest levels in hypothalamus, medulla oblongata, substantia nigra and thalamus
NmUR1, NmUR2	Human being	Cardiovascular tissues	PCR	NmU and NmUR1 were expressed in cardiovascular tissues	Mitchell (2009) 63

DRG, dorsal root ganglia; ICC, immunocytochemistry; IHC, immunohistochemistry; ISH, in situ hybridization; RIA, radioimmunoassay.