Photic and non-photic inputs to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the rat: role of the serotonergic system

In mammals, circadian rhythms are controlled by a master clock localized in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and entrained to 24 h by external cues. These signals are conveyed by three main afferences: the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT), the geniculohypothalamic tract (GHT) and the serotonergic tract. Photic factors during the night, leading to glutamate release from the RHT and c-Fos and clock gene expression in the SCN, induce phase shifts of the locomotor activity rhythm. Non-photic factors during the day generally induce phase advances of the locomotor activity rhythm and involve serotonin (5-HT) release from the serotonergic tract. Photic and non-photic factors can interact and modulate their respective effects. The purpose of my thesis is to better understand the mechanisms underlying these interactions. In the first part of this work, we have investigated the interaction between a photic factor and a non-photic factor on different circadian parameters in mice exposed to a light-dark cycle and fed daily with a diurnal hypocaloric diet (hypocaloric-fed mice). Compared to control animals fed ad libitum, the hypocaloric-fed mice showed phase changes of the locomotor activity, the melatonin secretion and the vasopressin expression rhythms and showed significant phase advances of two clock gene expression. There were also changes of light-induced phase shifts of the locomotor activity rhythm and light-induced clock gene expression in hypocaloric-fed mice. Thus, diurnal hypocaloric feeding is a non-photic factor able to modulate the synchronizing effects of light in the mouse. Lesion of serotonergic afferences to the SCN induces a marked reduction of the phase shifting effects of the diurnal hypocaloric feeding, implicating 5-HT in the neuronal mechanisms underlying these effects. In rats, 5-HT agonists are known to mimic the effect of light on various parameters of the SCN. We thus proposed that 5-HT could play a role in the functional interaction between photic and non-photic factors in the SCN and we thus studied the neuronal mechanisms mediating the photic-like shifting effects of 5-HT in the rat. In the second part of this work, we first tried to localize the 5-HT receptors implicated in these photic-like effects. As serotonergic agonists act directly in the SCN, these receptors can be either presynaptic or postsynaptic. To test the presynaptic hypothesis, we studied the phase shifting effects of a non-specific serotonergic agonist, the quipazine, in animals bearing lesions of either the serotonergic afferences, the GHT or the RHT. Our results implicate the RHT suggesting that the 5-HT receptors involved are localized on terminals of this tract. The possible serotonergic receptor subtype involved in these photic-like effects of 5-HT could be the 5-HT3 receptors since they have been shown in other brain structure to be localized on glutamatergic terminals and to induce glutamate release. Our results obtained with a specific 5-HT3 agonist and a specific 5-HT3 antagonist on several circadian parameters demonstrate the implication of the 5-HT3 receptor in the photic-like resetting effects of quipazine on the locomotor activity rhythm. However, another 5-HT receptor subtype seems to be involved in the induction of c-FOS expression by quipazine. In addition, we found that NMDA receptors, which are activated by glutamate release, participate in the phase advance of the locomotor activity rhythm and in the c-FOS expression in the SCN, induced by quipazine injection. Thus, the resetting effects of 5-HT in rats are mediated by presynaptic 5-HT3 receptors localized on the RHT terminals that trigger glutamate release, thus producing photic-like behavioral shifts.