Dinh TT, Huston N, Ritter S (2014) Lesions of hindbrain catecholaminergic projections to nucleus accumbens, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, lateral parabrachial nucleus or locus coeruleus do not impair glucoprivic feeding. Neuroscience 2014 Abstracts 256.05. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC.
Summary: We have shown previously that injection of the retrogradely transported immunotoxin, anti-dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) saporin (DSAP), into the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH) or arcuate nucleus, abolishes feeding in response to central or systemic glucoprivation. Since DSAP injection destroys DBH-expressing neurons with projections to the injection site, these results strongly implicate hindbrain catecholamine neurons as major mediators of glucoprivic feeding. In order to further define the essential circuitry underlying glucoprivic feeding, we injected DSAP into these additional sites: locus coeruleus (LC), accumbens shell (AcbSh), ventrolatersal bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (vlBNST) and lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN). These sites are innervated by hindbrain catecholamine neurons and some sites receive collateral innervation from PVH-projecting catecholamine neurons. Appropriate placement and volume for DSAP administration was determined by co-labeling of DBH-ir neurons with retrograde tracer injected into target sites. Lesions were confirmed by postmortem evaluation of DSAP injection site and by hindbrain catecholamine cell and terminal loss. We found that the feeding response to systemic glucoprivation was not significantly or permanently impaired by injection of DSAP into any of these sites. Based on our results to date, we tentatively conclude that direct projections from hindbrain catecholamine neurons to the LC, AcbSh, vlBNST and LPBN are not required for glucoprivic feeding. The hypothalamus appears to be the major recipient of direct innervation from catecholamine neurons required for glucoprivic feeding
Related Products: Anti-DBH-SAP (Cat. #IT-03)