Galanin immunoreactivity in the brain of the desert lizard Uromastyx acanthinura during activity season

Hammouche, Sadjia; Bennis, Mohamed

doi:10.5603/fhc.2013.007

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Some of the preoptic galanin neurons may express gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Rossmanith et al 1996). However, it has often been reported that the expression of galanin may be conditional, and depend on sex, hormonal background, and other factors in different hypothalamic neurons in various species (Christiansen 2011; Diaz-Cabiale et al 2014; Garcia-Falgueras et al 2011; Hammouche and Bennis 2013; Porteous et al 2011; Tillet et al 2012; Whitelaw et al 2012). Therefore, the possibility exists that the difference between the distribution of galanin in rats and mice could be a consequence of conditions apart from the species difference.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternally involved galanin neurons in the preoptic area of the rat

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent selective stimulation and ablation of galanin neurons in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus established their critical role in control of maternal behaviors. Here, we identified a group of galanin neurons in the anterior commissural nucleus (ACN), and a distinct group in the medial preoptic area (MPA). Galanin neurons in ACN but not the MPA co-expressed oxytocin. We used immunodetection of phosphorylated STAT5 (pSTAT5), involved in prolactin receptor signal transduction, to evaluate the effects of suckling-induced prolactin release and found that 76 % of galanin cells in ACN, but only 12 % in MPA were prolactin responsive. Nerve terminals containing tuberoinfundibular peptide 39 (TIP39), a neuropeptide that mediates effects of suckling on maternal motivation, were abundant around galanin neurons in both preoptic regions. In the ACN and MPA, 89 and 82 % of galanin neurons received close somatic appositions, with an average of 2.9 and 2.6 per cell, respectively. We observed perisomatic innervation of galanin neurons using correlated light and electron microscopy. The connection was excitatory based on the glutamate content of TIP39 terminals demonstrated by post-embedding immunogold electron microscopy. Injection of the anterograde tracer biotinylated dextran amine into the TIP39-expressing posterior intralaminar complex of the thalamus (PIL) demonstrated that preoptic TIP39 fibers originate in the PIL, which is activated by suckling. Thus, galanin neurons in the preoptic area of mother rats are innervated by an excitatory neuronal pathway that conveys suckling-related information. In turn, they can be topographically and neurochemically divided into two distinct cell groups, of which only one is affected by prolactin.

show abstract