WWW.JNEUROSCI.ORG
-
The Journal of Neuroscience
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     
-


HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP
The Journal of Neuroscience, September 23, 2009, 29(38):11954-11964; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2643-09.2009

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental Data
Right arrow Submit an eLetter
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Yoshida, K.
Right arrow Articles by Saper, C. B.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Yoshida, K.
Right arrow Articles by Saper, C. B.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Parallel Preoptic Pathways for Thermoregulation

Kyoko Yoshida, Xiaodong Li, Georgina Cano, Michael Lazarus, and Clifford B. Saper

Department of Neurology and Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Clifford B. Saper, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. Email: csaper{at}bidmc.harvard.edu

Sympathetic premotor neurons in the rostral medullary raphe (RMR) regulate heat conservation by tail artery vasoconstriction and brown adipose tissue thermogenesis. These neurons are a critical relay in the pathway that increases body temperature. However, the origins of the inputs that activate the RMR during cold exposure have not been definitively identified. We investigated the afferents to the RMR that were activated during cold by examining Fos expression in retrogradely labeled neurons after injection of cholera toxin B subunit (CTb) in the RMR. These experiments identified a cluster of Fos-positive neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus and dorsal hypothalamic area (DMH/DHA) with projections to the RMR that may mediate cold-induced elevation of body temperature. Also, neurons in the median preoptic nucleus (MnPO) and dorsolateral preoptic area (DLPO) and in the A7 noradrenergic cell group were retrogradely labeled but lacked Fos expression, suggesting that they may inhibit the RMR. To investigate whether individual or common preoptic neurons project to the RMR and DMH/DHA, we injected CTb into the RMR and Fluorogold into the DMH/DHA. We found that projections from the DLPO and MnPO to the RMR and DMH/DHA emerge from largely separate neuronal populations, indicating they may be differentially regulated. Combined cell-specific lesions of MnPO and DLPO, but not lesions of either one alone, caused baseline hyperthermia. Our data suggest that the MnPO and DLPO provide parallel inhibitory pathways that tonically inhibit the DMH/DHA and the RMR at baseline, and that hyperthermia requires the release of this inhibition from both nuclei.

Received June 5, 2009; revised Aug. 6, 2009; accepted Aug. 7, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Clifford B. Saper, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. Email: csaper{at}bidmc.harvard.edu
-

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help
-
Copyright 2010 by Society for Neuroscience ONLINE ISSN: 1529-2401
-