Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide and PACAP receptors are both present in the rat cerebellar cortex, suggesting that PACAP may play an important role in the cerebellum. In the present study, the variation of the concentration of PACAP binding sites in the rat cerebellum was investigated during postnatal development by means of quantitative autoradiography, using [125I]PACAP27 as a radioligand. In the external granule cell layer and the medulla, the density of PACAP binding sites was high at birth, markedly decreased from postnatal day 8 (P8) to P25 and finally vanished at the end of the third postnatal week. In the internal granule cell layer and molecular layer, PACAP binding sites were first detected at P8. In the internal granule cell layer, the density of binding sites slightly decreased during development but remained elevated in adults. Conversely, in the molecular layer, PACAP binding sites rapidly decreased during the second and third postnatal weeks and virtually disappeared after P25. In all four layers of the cerebellar cortex, the autoradiographic labeling was displaced by PACAP27 (IC50 close to 10(-8) M), but was not affected by VIP. No significant changes in IC50 and Hill coefficient were noticed in the various layers throughout development. The present study shows that all four layers of the cerebellar cortex express PACAP binding sites during development. The evolution of the receptor concentration exhibited differential profiles in the various layers but the specificity characteristics of the recognition sites were identical in all four structures.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)