Issue Archive

Time course study of growth hormone releasing peptide-6-induced c-fos expression in neurons of feeding-related nuclei of hypothalamus

YU Yan-Juan, DONG Jing, JIANG Zheng-Yao, Inge Depoortere

Department of Special Medicine； Department of Physiology, Qingdao Medical College of Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China； Center for Gastroenterological Research, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Abstract

The present study was aimed to explore the effects of intraperitoneal injection of growth hormone releasing peptide-6 (GHRP-6), a ghrelin receptor agonist, on food intake and neuronal activity of feeding-related nuclei in the hypothalamus of NMRI mice. Accumulated amount of food intake was measured, and total number of c-fos immunoreactive neurons in arcuate nucleus (ARC), paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and supraoptic nucleus (SON) was counted by immunohistochemistry at 1, 3 and 6 h after the GHRP-6 injection. The results showed that GHRP-6 significantly increased the amount of food intake with a peak at 3 h after the GHRP-6 injection. Meanwhile, GHRP-6 could promote c-fos expression in the ARC and PVN independent of food intake, and the total number of c-fos immunoreactive neurons was peaked at 1 h after injection and then decreased gradually. These results suggest that GHRP-6 may increase food intake in time-dependent manner, which is associated with up-regulations of c-fos protein expression in the ARC and PVN.

Key words: GHRP-6; food intake ; hypothalamus ; c-Fos

Received: 2015-09-13　　Accepted: 2015-11-17

Corresponding author: 董静　　E-mail: dongjing6@hotmail.com

Citing This Article：

YU Yan-Juan, DONG Jing, JIANG Zheng-Yao, Inge Depoortere. Time course study of growth hormone releasing peptide-6-induced c-fos expression in neurons of feeding-related nuclei of hypothalamus. Acta Physiol Sin 2016; 68 (1): 19-26 (in Chinese with English abstract).