• Wei Zhang, Jinko Sunanaga, Yoshiko Takahashi, Taketsugu Mori, Takeshi Sakurai, Yuichi Kanmura, and Tomoyuki Kuwaki.
• Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
• J. Physiol. (Lond.). 2010 Nov 1;588(Pt 21):4117-29.

AbstractOrexin neurons contribute to cardiovascular, respiratory and analgesic components of the fight-or-flight response against stressors. Here, we examined whether the same is true for stress-induced hyperthermia. We used prepro-orexin knockout mice (ORX-KO) and orexin neuron-ablated mice (ORX-AB) in which the latter lack not only orexin, but also other putative neurotransmitter/modulators contained in the orexin neurons. In response to repetitive insertion of a temperature probe into their rectum (handling stress), ORX-KO mice showed a normal temperature change as compared to that of wild-type littermates (WT) while ORX-AB showed an attenuated response. Stress-induced expression of uncoupling protein-1, a key molecule in non-shivering thermogenesis in the brown adipose tissue (BAT), was also blunted in ORX-AB but not in ORX-KO. When the BAT was directly activated by a β3 adrenergic agonist, there was no difference in the resultant BAT temperature among the groups, indicating that BAT per se was normal in ORX-AB. In WT and ORX-KO, handling stress activated orexin neurons (as revealed by increased expression of c-Fos) and the resultant hyperthermia was largely blunted by pre-treatment with a β3 antagonist. This observation further supports the notion that attenuated stress-induced hyperthermia in ORX-AB mice was caused by a loss of orexin neurons and abnormal BAT regulation. This study pointed out, for the first time, the possible importance of co-existent neurotransmitter/modulators in the orexin neurons for stress-induced hyperthermia and the importance of integrity of the orexin neurons for full expression of multiple facets of the fight-or-flight response.

36 keywords...

hide…