The present study investigated the effect of serotonin depletion on the neuronal activity and transcription of corticotropin-releasing factor in the rat brain during the acute-phase response. Conscious male rats received an intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection with the immune activator lipopolysaccaride (25 microg/100 g body wt) after being treated for three consecutive days with para-chlorophenylalanine (30mg/100 g/day). This irreversible inhibitor of tryptophane-5-hydroxylase decreased hypothalamic serotonin levels by 96%. One, 3 and 6 h after a single i.p. injection of lipopolysaccharide or vehicle solution, rats were killed and their brains cut in 30-microm coronal sections. Messenger RNAs encoding c-fos, nerve-growth factor inducible-B gene, corticotropin-releasing factor and the heteronuclear RNA encoding corticotropin-releasing factor primary transcript were assayed by in situ hybridization using 35S-labeled riboprobes, whereas Fos-immunoreactive nuclei were labeled by immunocytochemistry. Lipopolysaccharide induced a wide neuronal activation indicated by the expression of both immediate-early gene transcripts and Fos protein in numerous structures of the brain. The signal for both immediate-early gene transcripts was low to moderate 1 h after lipopolysaccharide administration, maximal at 3 h and decline at 6 h post-injection, whereas at that time, Fos-immunoreactive nuclei were still detected in most of the c-fos messenger RNA-positive structures. Interestingly, the strong and widespread induction of both immediate-early gene transcripts was almost totally inhibited by para-chlorophenylalanine treatment; in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus for example, c-fos messenger RNA signal and the number of Fos-immunoreactive positive cells were reduced by 80 and 48%, respectively, in serotonin-depleted rats treated with the bacterial endotoxin. This blunted neuronal response was also associated with an attenuated stimulation of neuroendocrine corticotropin-releasing factor transcription and plasma corticosterone release. Indeed, lipopolysaccharide caused a selective expression of corticotropin-releasing factor primary transcript in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and this effect was significantly reduced by treatment with the serotonin inhibitor. However, basal expression of corticotropin-releasing factor messenger RNA across the brain (bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, medial preoptic area, paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, central nucleus of the amygdala, etc.) was not affected by the para-chlorophenylalanine treatment. These results suggest that the integrity of serotonin pathways plays a role in the neuronal activity triggered by the systemic endotoxin insult. The fact that serotonin depletion largely prevented activation of neurosecretory parvocellular neurons of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and neuroendocrine corticotropin-releasing factor gene transcription in response to immunogenic challenge provides the evidence that serotonergic system is part of the brain circuitry involved in the corticotroph axis-immune interface.