Galanin is coexpressed with vasopressin and oxytocin in magnocellular neurons of the rat neuroendocrine hypothalamus. Various physiological stimuli, such as osmotic stimulation or lactation, that affect vasopressin and oxytocin expression and release also modulate galanin expression. Magnocellular neurons are highly innervated by noradrenergic inputs from the brainstem. The noradrenergic system plays a critical excitatory role in the activation of vasopressin-expressing and oxytocin-expressing neurons. Here, we have evaluated the possible regulation of Gal expression by noradrenaline in the magnocellular neurons of supraoptic nucleus in an ex vivo acute model of rat hypothalamic slices. The slices containing the supraoptic nucleus were incubated with 10(-4) M noradrenaline for 1 or 4 hr. The levels of galanin and galanin mRNA were estimated by semiquantitative immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization, respectively. Our results show that the amount of galanin-immunopositive material in the cell bodies of the magnocellular neurons increased significantly after incubation with noradrenaline compared with control slices at the same time point and that this effect was more pronounced after 4 hr than after 1 hr. In situ hybridization showed that radiolabeling of the supraoptic nucleus with a radioactive galanin probe increased slightly after 1 hr of incubation and increased considerably after 4 hr of incubation with noradrenaline. Our study shows that galanin may be a target in the regulation of the hypothalamic magnocellular-neurohypophysial system by noradrenaline.