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Neuroscience Letters May 2016The decrease in serotonergic neurotransmission during aging can increase the risk of neuropsychiatric diseases such as depression in elderly population and decline the...
The decrease in serotonergic neurotransmission during aging can increase the risk of neuropsychiatric diseases such as depression in elderly population and decline the reproductive system. Therefore, it is important to understand the age-associated molecular mechanisms of brain aging. In this study, the effect of aging and chronic escitalopram (antidepressant) treatment to admit mice was investigated by comparing transcriptomes in the preoptic area (POA) which is a key nucleus for reproduction. In the mid-aged brain, the immune system-related genes were increased and hormone response-related genes were decreased. In the escitalopram treated brains, transcription-, granule cell proliferation- and vasoconstriction-related genes were increased and olfactory receptors were decreased. Since homeostasis and neuroprotection-related genes were altered in both of mid-age and escitalopram treatment, these genes could be important for serotonin related physiologies in the POA.
Topics: Age Factors; Animals; Citalopram; Male; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Preoptic Area; Serotonin; Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors; Transcriptome
PubMed: 27113202
DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2016.04.052 -
Scientific Reports Mar 2020Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are aggregations of extracellular matrix associated with specific neuronal populations in the central nervous system, suggested to play key...
Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are aggregations of extracellular matrix associated with specific neuronal populations in the central nervous system, suggested to play key roles in neural development, synaptogenesis and experience-dependent synaptic plasticity. Pregnancy and lactation are characterized by a dramatic increase in neuroplasticity. However, dynamic changes in the extracellular matrix associated with maternal circuits have been mostly overlooked. We analyzed the structure of PNNs in an essential nucleus of the maternal circuit, the medial preoptic area (mPOA), during the reproductive cycle of rats, using the Wisteria floribunda (WFA) label. PNNs associated to neurons in the mPOA start to assemble halfway through gestation and become highly organized prior to parturition, fading through the postpartum period. This high expression of PNNs during pregnancy appears to be mediated by the influence of estrogen, progesterone and prolactin, since a hormonal simulated-gestation treatment induced the expression of PNNs in ovariectomized females. We found that PNNs associated neurons in the mPOA express estrogen receptor α and progesterone receptors, supporting a putative role of reproductive hormones in the signaling mechanisms that trigger the assembly of PNNs in the mPOA. This is the first report of PNNs presence and remodeling in mPOA during adulthood induced by physiological variables.
Topics: Animals; Extracellular Matrix; Female; Lactation; Male; Neuronal Plasticity; Neurons; Ovariectomy; Pregnancy; Preoptic Area; Rats, Wistar; Receptors, Estrogen; Receptors, Progesterone; Reproduction
PubMed: 32214157
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62163-z -
Nature Neuroscience Mar 2017Neural networks that control reproduction must integrate social and hormonal signals, tune motivation, and coordinate social interactions. However, the neural circuit...
Neural networks that control reproduction must integrate social and hormonal signals, tune motivation, and coordinate social interactions. However, the neural circuit mechanisms for these processes remain unresolved. The medial preoptic area (mPOA), an essential node for social behaviors, comprises molecularly diverse neurons with widespread projections. Here we identify a steroid-responsive subset of neurotensin (Nts)-expressing mPOA neurons that interface with the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to form a socially engaged reward circuit. Using in vivo two-photon imaging in female mice, we show that mPOA neurons preferentially encode attractive male cues compared to nonsocial appetitive stimuli. Ovarian hormone signals regulate both the physiological and cue-encoding properties of these cells. Furthermore, optogenetic stimulation of mPOA-VTA circuitry promotes rewarding phenotypes, social approach and striatal dopamine release. Collectively, these data demonstrate that steroid-sensitive mPOA neurons encode ethologically relevant stimuli and co-opt midbrain reward circuits to promote prosocial behaviors critical for species survival.
Topics: Animals; Corpus Striatum; Dopamine; Estradiol; Estrous Cycle; Female; Male; Mice; Mice, Transgenic; Neural Pathways; Neurons; Neurotensin; Odorants; Preoptic Area; Reward; Social Behavior; Ventral Tegmental Area
PubMed: 28135243
DOI: 10.1038/nn.4487 -
Acta Physiologica (Oxford, England) Apr 2019To determine the role of neurons in the ventral part of the lateral preoptic area (vLPO) in CNS thermoregulation.
AIM
To determine the role of neurons in the ventral part of the lateral preoptic area (vLPO) in CNS thermoregulation.
METHODS
In vivo electrophysiological and neuropharmacological were used to evaluate the contribution of neurons in the vLPO to the regulation of brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis and muscle shivering in urethane/chloralose-anaesthetized rats.
RESULTS
Nanoinjections of NMDA targeting the medial preoptic area (MPA) and the vLPO suppressed the cold-evoked BAT sympathetic activity (SNA), reduced the BAT temperature (T ), expired CO , mean arterial pressure (MAP), and heart rate. Inhibition of vLPO neurons with muscimol or AP5/CNQX elicited increases in BAT SNA, T , tachycardia, and small elevations in MAP. The BAT thermogenesis evoked by AP5/CNQX in vLPO was inhibited by the activation of MPA neurons. The inhibition of BAT SNA by vLPO neurons does not require a GABAergic input to dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH), but MPA provides a GABAergic input to DMH. The activation of vLPO neurons inhibits the BAT thermogenesis evoked by NMDA in the rostral raphe pallidus (rRPa), but not that after bicuculline in rRPa. The BAT thermogenesis elicited by vLPO inhibition is dependent on glutamatergic inputs to DMH and rRPa, but these excitatory inputs do not arise from MnPO neurons. The activation of neurons in the vLPO also inhibits cold- and prostaglandin-evoked muscle shivering, and vLPO inhibition is sufficient to evoke shivering.
CONCLUSION
The vLPO contains neurons that are required for the warm ambient-evoked inhibition of muscle shivering and of BAT thermogenesis, mediated through a direct or indirect GABAergic input to rRPa from vLPO.
Topics: Adipose Tissue, Brown; Animals; Dinoprostone; Male; N-Methylaspartate; Nucleus Raphe Pallidus; Preoptic Area; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Receptors, GABA; Receptors, Glutamate; Shivering
PubMed: 30365209
DOI: 10.1111/apha.13213 -
Mu opioid receptors in the medial preoptic area govern social play behavior in adolescent male rats.Genes, Brain, and Behavior Sep 2020Neural systems underlying important behaviors are usually highly conserved across species. The medial preoptic area (MPOA) has been demonstrated to play a crucial role...
Neural systems underlying important behaviors are usually highly conserved across species. The medial preoptic area (MPOA) has been demonstrated to play a crucial role in reward associated with affiliative, nonsexual, social communication in songbirds. However, the role of MPOA in affiliative, rewarding social behaviors (eg, social play behavior) in mammals remains largely unknown. Here we applied our insights from songbirds to rats to determine whether opioids in the MPOA govern social play behavior in rats. Using an immediate early gene (ie, Egr1, early growth response 1) expression approach, we identified increased numbers of Egr1-labeled cells in the MPOA after social play in adolescent male rats. We also demonstrated that cells expressing mu opioid receptors (MORs, gene name Oprm1) in the MPOA displayed increased Egr1 expression when adolescent rats were engaged in social play using double immunofluorescence labeling of MOR and Egr1. Furthermore, using short hairpin RNA-mediated gene silencing we revealed that knockdown of Oprm1 in the MPOA reduced the number of total play bouts and the frequency of pouncing. Last, RNA sequencing differential gene expression analysis identified genes involved in neuronal signaling with altered expression after Oprm1 knockdown, and identified Egr1 as potentially a key modulator for Oprm1 in the regulation of social play behavior. Altogether, these results show that the MPOA is involved in social play behavior in adolescent male rats and support the hypothesis that the MPOA is part of a conserved neural circuit across vertebrates in which opioids act to govern affiliative, intrinsically rewarded social behaviors.
Topics: Animals; Carrier Proteins; Male; Membrane Proteins; Preoptic Area; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Receptors, Opioid, mu; Social Behavior
PubMed: 32388931
DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12662 -
Handbook of Clinical Neurology 2018Cutaneous vasoconstrictor nerves regulate heat retention, and are activated by falls in skin or core temperature. The efferent pathways controlling this process... (Review)
Review
Cutaneous vasoconstrictor nerves regulate heat retention, and are activated by falls in skin or core temperature. The efferent pathways controlling this process originate within the preoptic area. A descending GABAergic pathway, activated by warm skin or core, indirectly inhibits sympathetic premotor neurons in the medullary raphé. Those premotor neurons drive cutaneous vasoconstriction via excitatory glutamatergic and serotonergic connections to spinal preganglionic neurons. Cold skin and/or cold core temperatures activate a direct preoptic-to-raphé excitatory pathway. The balance of inhibitory and excitatory influences reaching the medullary raphé determines cutaneous blood flow. During fever, prostaglandin E inhibits preoptic GABAergic neurons, resulting in disinhibition of the excitatory preoptic-to-raphé pathway, and hence, cutaneous vasoconstriction. A weaker, parallel source of descending excitatory drive reaches cutaneous preganglionic neurons from the rostral ventrolateral medulla. Sweating follows local heating of the preoptic area in cats and monkeys, and heated humans show sweating-related activation of this same region in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. A descending pathway that drives sweating has been traced in cats from the hypothalamus to putative premotor neurons in the parafacial region at the pontomedullary junction. The homologous parafacial region in humans also shows sweating-related activation in fMRI studies. The central pathways that drive active vasodilatation in human nonacral skin remain unknown.
Topics: Animals; Blood Pressure; Body Temperature Regulation; Efferent Pathways; Humans; Neurons; Preoptic Area; Skin; Sweating
PubMed: 30454597
DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-444-63912-7.00018-7 -
Annual Review of Sex Research 1997
Review
Topics: Animals; Electric Stimulation; Humans; Hypothalamus; Male; Nerve Net; Neurotransmitter Agents; Odorants; Preoptic Area; Sexual Behavior, Animal; Testosterone
PubMed: 10051891
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of Comparative and... Feb 1977The present series of experiments examined whether the medial preoptic area (MPOA) is involved in the onset of maternal behavior in the rat. Previously, the MPOA had...
The present series of experiments examined whether the medial preoptic area (MPOA) is involved in the onset of maternal behavior in the rat. Previously, the MPOA had been shown to be important in the maintenance of maternal behavior in the lactating rat. The first experiment investigated whether estradiol benzoate (EB) acts on the MPOA to facilitate the onset of maternal behavior in the 16-day pregnant, hysterectomized, and ovariectomized female rat. Such rats when given EB implants in the MPOA had significantly shorter latencies for the onset of maternal behavior than had females implanted with cholesterol in the MPOA or with EB in the ventromedial hypothalamus, in mammillary bodies, or under the skin. A second experiment showed that estrogen-induced prolactin release was not involved in this facilitation. A third experiment indicated that MPOA lesions disrupt the onset of maternal behavior that is induced by pup stimulation in virgin females. It was concluded that the MPOA is involved not only in the maintenance of maternal behavior but in the hormonally mediated onset of maternal behavior and the onset of maternal behavior induced in virgin females by pup stimulation.
Topics: Animals; Castration; Cholesterol; Drug Implants; Ergot Alkaloids; Estradiol; Female; Hypothalamus; Hypothalamus, Middle; Hysterectomy; Injections, Subcutaneous; Mammillary Bodies; Maternal Behavior; Pregnancy; Pregnancy, Animal; Preoptic Area; Prolactin; Rats; Reaction Time
PubMed: 402400
DOI: 10.1037/h0077304 -
Folia Morphologica Feb 2010The aim of the study was to provide the topography and morphometric characteristics of the preoptic area (POA) of the guinea pig. The study was carried out on the brains...
The aim of the study was to provide the topography and morphometric characteristics of the preoptic area (POA) of the guinea pig. The study was carried out on the brains of sexually mature guinea pigs of both sexes. A uniform procedure was followed in the study of the paraffin-embedded brain tissue blocks of males and females. The blocks were cut in the coronal plane into 50 mm sections and stained according to the Nissl method. The guinea pig POA consists of four parts: the medial preoptic area (MPA), lateral preoptic area (LPA), periventricular preoptic nucleus (PPN), and median preoptic nucleus (MPN). The topography and general structure of POA parts are similar in males and females. However, the PPNa cells of females are more intensely stained and are more densely packed than the PPNa cells of males. For morphometric analysis, the MPA and LPA as well as PPN and MPN were considered respectively as uniform structures, namely MPA-LPA and PPN-MPN. The statistical analysis showed that the volume of the PPN-MPN was larger in males than in females, whereas the MPA-LPA volume did not differ between the sexes. Moreover, the numerical density and the total number of neurons were statistically larger in males than in females in both the MPA-LPA and PPN-MPN. The parameters describing POA neurons were larger for MPA-LPA neurons in comparison with the PPN-MPN neurons. However, in this respect no sex differences were observed in both studied complexes.
Topics: Animals; Female; Guinea Pigs; Male; Neurons; Preoptic Area; Sex Characteristics
PubMed: 20235045
DOI: No ID Found -
Brain Research Mar 1987There is considerable physiological evidence indicating that the medial preoptic area plays an important role in neural circuits mediating ingestive, thermoregulatory,...
There is considerable physiological evidence indicating that the medial preoptic area plays an important role in neural circuits mediating ingestive, thermoregulatory, and reproductive behaviors, all of which involve foraging. The current series of anatomical and electrophysiological experiments was therefore designed to characterize a direct projection from the medial preoptic area to a region in the zona incerta just dorsal to the subthalamic nucleus, which appears to lie within the 'subthalamic locomotor region', and to the pedunculopontine nucleus, which lies within the 'mesencephalic locomotor region'. First, implants of the fluorescent tracer True blue were placed in the pedunculopontine nucleus, and retrogradely labeled neurons were consistently found in dorsal regions of the medial preoptic nucleus, anteroventral preoptic nucleus, rostral tip of the medial preoptic area, lateral parts of the medial preoptic area, and median preoptic nucleus. Second, combined retrograde-immunostaining experiments indicated that a small number of galanin-stained neurons in the rostral tip of the medial preoptic area project to the pedunculopontine nucleus, whereas in nearby regions some galanin- or neurotensin-stained neurons in the lateral preoptic area, and some neurotensin-stained neurons in the substriatal gray appear to project to the pedunculopontine nucleus, as do some neurotensin- or corticotropin releasing factor (CRF)-stained cells in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. Third, injections of the anterograde tracer Phaseolus vulgaris leukoagglutinin (PHA-L) into various parts of the medial preoptic area all labeled axons with terminal boutons in the caudal zona incerta and pedunculopontine nucleus. Fourth, single-pulse stimuli were delivered to the zona incerta and pedunculopontine nucleus and the location of antidromically activated neurons in the medial preoptic area was mapped using extracellular recordings. Somewhat less than one-third of the cells recorded from in the medial preoptic area were antidromically activated from either site and some 14% were influenced from both sites. The application of a reciprocal collision test to a small number of neurons suggested that at least some neurons in the medial preoptic area may send collaterals to both sites. And fifth, injections of procaine into the zona incerta were shown to block the antidromic activation of medial preoptic neurons by single-pulse stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Topics: Animals; Brain Mapping; Diencephalon; Evoked Potentials; Locomotion; Male; Mesencephalon; Neural Pathways; Preoptic Area; Rats
PubMed: 3567588
DOI: 10.1016/0006-8993(87)90995-4