Watts AG, Sanchez-Watts G, Dinh TT, Ritter S (2002) Immunotoxic lesions of ascending catechoalminergic afferents abolish the CRH gene transcriptional response to 2-deoxyglucose in the rat paraventricular nucleus. Neuroscience 2002 Abstracts 865.2. Society for Neuroscience, Orlando, FL.
Summary: CRH neurons in the medial parvicellular (mp) part of the paraventricular nucleus (PVH) are critical for the neural control of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis. One of their most prominent afferents sets derives from hindbrain catecholaminergic neurons that are thought to help mediate viscerosensory influences on the PVHmp. Despite the prominence of this input, its precise role in controlling CRH neuronal function remains controversial. Here we report the effect on basal and stimulated CRH gene expression of an immunotoxin that selectively destroys catecholaminergic neurons. Rats were injected in the PVH with either a saporin-anti-dopamine B-hydroxylase (DBH) conjugate (DSAP), which leads to total loss of DBH immunoreactivity in the PVH, or saporin alone (SAP), which does not. Three weeks later, animals were injected either with 250mg/kg of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) or vehicle. Thirty mins later they were anesthetized and perfused with 4% buffered paraformaldehyde. Fifteen um frozen sections were cut through the hypothalamus and hybridized for CRH mRNA, CRH hnRNA, or c-fos mRNA. DSAP treatment had no effect on CRH mRNA levels in the PVH of vehicle- or 2DG-injected animals, but abolished the CRH hnRNA and c-fos mRNA responses to 2DG. We have reported elsewhere that DSAP lesions selectively abolish the corticosterone response to 2DG, but not to swim stress, or circadian corticosterone release. We now show that catecholaminergic afferents are required for 2DG-induced CRH gene expression, but not for basal expression.
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