Background: There is no follicular development during pregnancy in the rat comparable to the changes of the estrous cycle. RFamide-related peptide-3 (RFRP-3) and kisspeptin were recognized as regulator of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion in several species, including the rat. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relative expression of RFRP...

Introduction: Gonadotropin inhibitory hormone (GnIH) is believed to be an inhibitor of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion. The role of GnIH in lactational inhibition of gonadotropin secretion is not well known therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of lactation on expression of GnIH in these nuclei of lactating and non-lactating rats. Methods: Ten po...

The GABA(B) receptor is important for the function of auditory neurons. We used Western blotting and immunohistochemical methods to examine the level and localization of GABA(B)R2, a required subunit of a functional GABA(B) receptor, in the rat's central auditory system. Results revealed that this subunit was expressed throughout the auditory system with the level being high in the layers I-V o...

Systemic inflammatory response syndrome is associated with either fever or hypothermia, but the mechanisms responsible for switching from one to the other are unknown. In experimental animals, systemic inflammation is often induced by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). To identify the diencephalic and brainstem structures involved in the fever-hypothermia switch, we studied the expression of c...

Using specific antisera to methionine-enkephalin and leucine-enkephalin, we have visualized apparent enkephalin-containing neuronal fibers and terminals throughout the central nervous system of the rat. Immunoreactive enkephalin displays sharply defined localizations. Regions of highest immunofluorescent density include the laminae I and II of the spinal cord, the substantia gelatinosa of the c...

the hypothalamus. Examination of these lesions has shown them to be very large, but they all have in common extensive bilateral damage to the region occupied by the dorsomedial and ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei, the arcuate nucleus, the fornix, Joel K. Elmquist,*† Carol F. Elias,*† and Clifford B. Saper*‡ *Department of Neurology and Program in Neuroscience †Department of Medicine and Divisi...

Brain angiotensin II (Ang II) inhibits pituitary prolactin release by an indirect mechanism requiring stimulation of dopamine formation and release. We report that [125I]Sar1-Ang II binding to AT1 receptors and AT1A receptor mRNA expression increase selectively in the dorsomedial arcuate nucleus of 17beta-estradiol-primed ovariectomized rats after treatment with progesterone. In hormone-treated...

The modification in the activity of noradrenergic neurons projecting to the hypothalamus and the pituitary-adrenal response during morphine withdrawal as well its correlation with alterations in corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and vasopressin (AVP) content in different brain areas was analyzed. Male rats were implanted with placebo (naïve) or morphine (tolerant/dependent) pellets for 7 day...

Quantitative autoradiography was performed to investigate the mapping of prostaglandin E2 binding sites in the Macaca fuscata fuscata diencephalon. Autoradiographs were prepared by incubation of 10-micron-thick serial frozen sections with 3H-prostaglandin E2 and were processed by using a rotating drum-scanner and a computer-assisted image-processing system with 3H-microscales as standards. The ...

In agreement with the neuropsychological findings, available anatomical data from patients with diencephalic or bitemporal amnesia suggest that these amnesias need not result from damage to a single functional system. In the case of diencephalic amnesia, the mammillary bodies and the dorsomedial thalamic nucleus have been implicated, but it is not yet clear which structure deserves the greater ...