Neuroscience
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Caspases are proteases involved in various physiological and pathological processes in the nervous system, including development and pathogenesis. GRASP-1 is a recently identified neuronal substrate of caspase-3-subfamily caspases. It is a Ras-guanine nucleotide exchange factor (RasGEF) that interacts with the glutamate receptor interacting protein (GRIP). ⋯ We found that caspase cleavage of GRASP-1 occurs in specific brain regions in a time-dependent manner during development and ischemia. This data provides an important account of the brain areas that might require caspase-3 activity in postnatal development and ischemic damage, which has not been documented. It also demonstrates that the CGP antibody is a powerful tool for studying neuronal activity of the caspase-3-subfamily caspases in vivo.
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Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine that may have a role in energy regulation. Using a recombinant adeno-associated viral vector expressing murine interleukin-6 (rAAV-IL-6), we examined the chronic effects of centrally expressed IL-6 on food intake, body weight and adiposity in male Sprague-Dawley rats, and investigated the underlying mechanisms. Direct delivery of rAAV-IL-6 into rat hypothalamus suppressed weight gain and visceral adiposity without affecting food intake over a 5-week period. rAAV-IL-6 enhanced uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) protein levels in interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT). ⋯ These data demonstrate that chronic elevation of IL-6 in the CNS reduces body weight gain and visceral adiposity without affecting food intake. The mechanism involves sympathetic induction of UCP1 in BAT and, presumably, enhanced thermogenesis in BAT. Furthermore, chronic central IL-6 stimulation desensitizes IL-6 signal transduction characterized by reversal of elevated P-STAT3 levels.
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As visualized by light and electron microscopic immunocytochemistry, the distribution of the neuronal serotonin-2A (5-HT(2A)) receptor is mainly intracellular throughout adult rat brain. This localization is particularly striking in the pyramidal cells of cerebral cortex, the dendrites of which are intensely immunoreactive, but without any labeling of their spines. In view of recent yeast two-hybrid and biochemical results suggesting an association of 5-HT(2A) receptors with the cytoskeletal microtubule-associated protein MAP1A, the respective subcellular distributions of the receptors and of MAP1A were compared by quantitative electron microscopic immunocytochemistry in dendrites of adult rat frontoparietal cortex. ⋯ The co-localization of 5-HT(2A) receptors and MAP1A protein in the same dendrites could be demonstrated in double immunolabeling experiments. These results confirmed the predominantly somato-dendritic, intracellular localization of 5-HT(2A) receptors in cerebral cortex, showed their higher concentration in distal as opposed to proximal dendrites, and suggested their potential association to the cytoskeleton in cortical neurons in vivo. Such a distribution of 5-HT(2A) receptors reinforces our earlier hypothesis that 5-HT(2A) receptors participate in intraneuronal signaling processes involving the cytoskeleton, and raises the possibility that their activation could be dependent upon that of another co-localized, plasma membrane-bound, 5-HT receptor.
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To elucidate the mechanism of orphanin FQ on neuroimmune modulation, the relationship between orphanin FQ and interleukin-1beta in the rat CNS in vivo and in vitro was investigated. In our experiments, it was found that orphanin FQ and interleukin-1beta mRNA transcripts showed a similar distribution in cerebral cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus. By using the in situ hybridization technique, down-regulation of interleukin-1beta mRNA transcripts by central administration of orphanin FQ was further identified in the traumatic animal model. ⋯ When analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, interleukin-1beta gene expression was observed to be enhanced and inhibited in primary neuron and microglial cell cultures exposed to orphanin FQ respectively. Interleukin-1beta gene expression in astrocyte cultures was not affected by treatment with orphanin FQ. Our findings suggest that the neuroimmune function of orphanin FQ might be dependent on interleukin-1beta derived from microglia, and the interaction between microglia and neurons.
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The identification of leptin and a range of novel anorectic and orexigenic peptides has focussed attention on the neural circuitry involved in the genesis of food intake and the reflex control of thermogenesis. Here, the neurotropic virus pseudorabies has been utilised in conjunction with the immunocytochemical localisation of a variety of neuroactive peptides and receptors to better define the pathways in the rat hypothalamus directed polysynaptically to the major thermogenic endpoint, brown adipose tissue. Infected neurones were detected initially in the stellate ganglion, then in the spinal cord followed by the appearance of third-order premotor neurones in the brainstem and hypothalamus. ⋯ Neurones in the retrochiasmatic nucleus and in the adjacent lateral arcuate nucleus which project to the brown adipose tissue express cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript, pro-opiomelanocortin and leptin receptors. Neurones in the lateral hypothalamus, a site traditionally associated with the promotion of feeding, project to brown adipose tissue and large numbers of these contained melanin-concentrating hormone and orexin A and B. These data provide part of an anatomical framework which subserves the regulation of energy expenditure.