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  • Sodium-level-sensitive sodium channel Na(x) is expressed in glial laminate processes in the sensory circumventricular organs. 16223844

    Na(x) is an atypical sodium channel that is assumed to be a descendant of the voltage-gated sodium channel family. Our recent studies on the Na(x)-gene-targeting mouse revealed that Na(x) channel is localized to the circumventricular organs (CVOs), the central loci for the salt and water homeostasis in mammals, where the Na(x) channel serves as a sodium-level sensor of the body fluid. To understand the cellular mechanism by which the information sensed by Na(x) channels is transferred to the activity of the organs, we dissected the subcellular localization of Na(x) in the present study. Double-immunostaining and immunoelectron microscopic analyses revealed that Na(x) is exclusively localized to perineuronal lamellate processes extended from ependymal cells and astrocytes in the organs. In addition, glial cells isolated from the subfornical organ, one of the CVOs, were sensitive to an increase in the extracellular sodium level, as analyzed by an ion-imaging method. These results suggest that glial cells bearing the Na(x) channel are the first to sense a physiological increase in the level of sodium in the body fluid, and they regulate the neural activity of the CVOs by enveloping neurons. Close communication between inexcitable glial cells and excitable neural cells thus appears to be the basis of the central control of the salt homeostasis.
    Document Type:
    Reference
    Product Catalog Number:
    AP183P
    Product Catalog Name:
    Goat Anti-Rat IgG Antibody, HRP conjugate, Species Adsorbed

  • Astrocyte IP3R2-dependent Ca(2+) signaling is not a major modulator of neuronal pathways governing behavior. 25429263

    Calcium-dependent release of gliotransmitters by astrocytes is reported to play a critical role in synaptic transmission and be necessary for long-term potentiation (LTP), long-term depression (LTD) and other forms of synaptic modulation that are correlates of learning and memory. Further, physiological processes reported to be dependent on Ca(2+) fluxes in astrocytes include functional hyperemia, sleep, and regulation of breathing. The preponderance of findings indicate that most, if not all, receptor dependent Ca(2+) fluxes within astrocytes are due to release of Ca(2+) through IP3 receptor/channels in the endoplasmic reticulum. Findings from several laboratories indicate that astrocytes only express IP3 receptor type 2 (IP3R2) and that a knockout of IP3R2 obliterates the GPCR-dependent astrocytic Ca(2+) responses. Assuming that astrocytic Ca(2+) fluxes play a critical role in synaptic physiology, it would be predicted that elimination of astrocytic Ca(2+) fluxes would lead to marked changes in behavioral tests. Here, we tested this hypothesis by conducting a broad series of behavioral tests that recruited multiple brain regions, on an IP3R2 conditional knockout mouse model. We present the novel finding that behavioral processes are unaffected by lack of astrocyte IP3R-mediated Ca(2+) signals. IP3R2 cKO animals display no change in anxiety or depressive behaviors, and no alteration to motor and sensory function. Morris water maze testing, a behavioral correlate of learning and memory, was unaffected by lack of astrocyte IP3R2-mediated Ca(2+)-signaling. Therefore, in contrast to the prevailing literature, we find that neither receptor-driven astrocyte Ca(2+) fluxes nor, by extension, gliotransmission is likely to be a major modulating force on the physiological processes underlying behavior.
    Document Type:
    Reference
    Product Catalog Number:
    AB3000
    Product Catalog Name:
    Anti-IP3 Receptor Type II Antibody

  • 3-D neurohistology of transparent tongue in health and injury with optical clearing. 24155698

    Tongue receives extensive innervation to perform taste, sensory, and motor functions. Details of the tongue neuroanatomy and its plasticity in response to injury offer insights to investigate tongue neurophysiology and pathophysiology. However, due to the dispersed nature of the neural network, standard histology cannot provide a global view of the innervation. We prepared transparent mouse tongue by optical clearing to reveal the spatial features of the tongue innervation and its remodeling in injury. Immunostaining of neuronal markers, including PGP9.5 (pan-neuronal marker), calcitonin gene-related peptide (sensory nerves), tyrosine hydroxylase (sympathetic nerves), and vesicular acetylcholine transporter (cholinergic parasympathetic nerves and neuromuscular junctions), was combined with vessel painting and nuclear staining to label the tissue network and architecture. The tongue specimens were immersed in the optical-clearing solution to facilitate photon penetration for 3-dimensiontal (3-D) confocal microscopy. Taking advantage of the transparent tissue, we simultaneously revealed the tongue microstructure and innervation with subcellular-level resolution. 3-D projection of the papillary neurovascular complex and taste bud innervation was used to demonstrate the spatial features of tongue mucosa and the panoramic imaging approach. In the tongue injury induced by 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide administration in the drinking water, we observed neural tissue remodeling in response to the changes of mucosal and muscular structures. Neural networks and the neuromuscular junctions were both found rearranged at the peri-lesional region, suggesting the nerve-lesion interactions in response to injury. Overall, this new tongue histological approach provides a useful tool for 3-D imaging of neural tissues to better characterize their roles with the mucosal and muscular components in health and disease.
    Document Type:
    Reference
    Product Catalog Number:
    AB152
    Product Catalog Name:
    Anti-Tyrosine Hydroxylase Antibody

  • The dorsal raphe modulates sensory responsiveness during arousal in zebrafish. 23100441

    During waking behavior, animals adapt their state of arousal in response to environmental pressures. Sensory processing is regulated in aroused states, and several lines of evidence imply that this is mediated at least partly by the serotonergic system. However, there is little information directly showing that serotonergic function is required for state-dependent modulation of sensory processing. Here we find that zebrafish larvae can maintain a short-term state of arousal during which neurons in the dorsal raphe modulate sensory responsiveness to behaviorally relevant visual cues. After a brief exposure to water flow, larvae show elevated activity and heightened sensitivity to perceived motion. Calcium imaging of neuronal activity after flow revealed increased activity in serotonergic neurons of the dorsal raphe. Genetic ablation of these neurons abolished the increase in visual sensitivity during arousal without affecting baseline visual function or locomotor activity. We traced projections from the dorsal raphe to a major visual area, the optic tectum. Laser ablation of the tectum demonstrated that this structure, like the dorsal raphe, is required for improved visual sensitivity during arousal. These findings reveal that serotonergic neurons of the dorsal raphe have a state-dependent role in matching sensory responsiveness to behavioral context.
    Document Type:
    Reference
    Product Catalog Number:
    MAB352
    Product Catalog Name:
    Anti-Serotonin Antibody, clone YC5/45

  • Sodium depletion activates the aldosterone-sensitive neurons in the NTS independently of thirst. 17068161

    Thirst and sodium appetite are both critical for restoring blood volume. Because these two behavioral drives can arise under similar physiological conditions, some of the brain sensory sites that stimulate thirst may also drive sodium appetite. However, the physiological and temporal dynamics of these two appetites exhibit clear differences, suggesting that they involve separate brain circuits. Unlike thirst-associated sensory neurons in the hypothalamus, the 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (HSD2) neurons in the rat nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) are activated in close association with sodium appetite (16). Here, we tested whether the HSD2 neurons are also activated in response to either of the two physiological stimuli for thirst: hyperosmolarity and hypovolemia. Hyperosmolarity, produced by intraperitoneal injection of hypertonic saline, stimulated a large increase in water intake and a substantial increase in immunoreactivity for the neuronal activity marker c-Fos within the medial NTS, but not in the HSD2 neurons. Hypovolemia, produced by subcutaneous injection of hyperoncotic polyethylene glycol (PEG), stimulated an increase in water intake within 1-4 h without elevating c-Fos expression in the HSD2 neurons. The HSD2 neurons were, however, activated by prolonged hypovolemia, which also stimulated sodium appetite. Twelve hours after PEG was injected in rats that had been sodium deprived for 4 days, the HSD2 neurons showed a consistent increase in c-Fos immunoreactivity. In summary, the HSD2 neurons are activated specifically in association with sodium appetite and appear not to function in thirst.
    Document Type:
    Reference
    Product Catalog Number:
    AB1542
    Product Catalog Name:
    Anti-Tyrosine Hydroxylase Antibody

  • Neural correlates of water reward in thirsty Drosophila. 25262493

    Drinking water is innately rewarding to thirsty animals. In addition, the consumed value can be assigned to behavioral actions and predictive sensory cues by associative learning. Here we show that thirst converts water avoidance into water-seeking in naive Drosophila melanogaster. Thirst also permitted flies to learn olfactory cues paired with water reward. Water learning required water taste and less than 40 water-responsive dopaminergic neurons that innervate a restricted zone of the mushroom body γ lobe. These water learning neurons are different from those that are critical for conveying the reinforcing effects of sugar. Naive water-seeking behavior in thirsty flies did not require water taste but relied on another subset of water-responsive dopaminergic neurons that target the mushroom body β' lobe. Furthermore, these naive water-approach neurons were not required for learned water-seeking. Our results therefore demonstrate that naive water-seeking, learned water-seeking and water learning use separable neural circuitry in the brain of thirsty flies.
    Document Type:
    Reference
    Product Catalog Number:
    AB152
    Product Catalog Name:
    Anti-Tyrosine Hydroxylase Antibody

  • Neuroinflammatory and behavioural changes in the Atp7B mutant mouse model of Wilson\'s disease. 21517843

    Wilson\'s disease (WD) is caused by mutations in the copper transporting ATPase 7B (Atp7b). Patients present with liver pathology or behavioural disturbances. Studies on rodent models for WD so far mainly focussed on liver, not brain. The effect of knockout of atp7b on sensori-motor and cognitive behaviour, as well as neuronal number, inflammatory markers, copper and synaptic proteins in brain were studied in so-called toxic milk mice. Copper accumulated in striatum and hippocampus of toxic milk mice, but not in cerebral cortex. Inflammatory markers were increased in striatum and corpus callosum, but not in cerebral cortex and hippocampus, whereas neuronal numbers were unchanged. Toxic milk mice were mildly impaired in the rotarod and cylinder test and unable to acquire spatial memory in the Morris water maze. Despite the latter observation only synaptophysin of a number of synaptic proteins, was altered in the hippocampus of toxic milk mice. In addition to disturbances in neuronal signalling by increased brain copper, inflammation and inflammatory signalling from the periphery to the brain might add to the behavioural disturbances in the toxic milk mice. These mice can be used to evaluate therapeutic strategies to alleviate behavioural disturbances and cerebral pathology observed in WD.© 2011 The Authors. Journal of Neurochemistry © 2011 International Society for Neurochemistry.
    Document Type:
    Reference
    Product Catalog Number:
    MAB5572
    Product Catalog Name:
    Anti-NMDAR2A Antibody

  • Long-term preservation of cone photoreceptors and visual acuity in rd10 mutant mice exposed to continuous environmental enrichment. 25489227

    In human patients and animal models of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a gradual loss of rod photoreceptors and decline in scotopic vision are the primary manifestations of the disease. Secondary death of cones and gradual, regressive remodeling of the inner retina follow and progress at different speeds according to the underlying genetic defect. In any case, the final outcome is near-blindness without a conclusive cure yet. We recently reported that environmental enrichment (EE), an experimental manipulation based on exposure to enhanced motor, sensory, and social stimulation, when started at birth, exerts clear beneficial effects on a mouse model of RP, by slowing vision loss. The purpose of this study was to investigate in the same mouse the long-term effects of chronic exposure to an EE and assess the outcome of this manipulation on cone survival, inner retinal preservation, and visual behavior.Two groups of rd10 mutant mice were maintained in an EE or standard (ST) laboratory conditions up to 1 year of age. Then, retinal preservation was assessed with immunocytochemistry, confocal microscopy examination, cone counts, and electron microscopy of the photoreceptor layer, while visual acuity was tested behaviorally with a Prusky water maze.rd10 mice are a model of autosomal recessive RP with a typical rod-cone, center to the periphery pattern of photoreceptor degeneration. They carry a mutation of the rod-specific phosphodiesterase gene and undergo rod death that peaks at around P24, while cone electroretinogram (ERG) is extinct by P60. We previously showed that early exposure to an EE efficiently delays photoreceptor degeneration in these mutants, extending the time window of cone viability and cone-mediated vision well beyond the phase of maximum rod death. Here we find that a maintained EE can delay the degeneration of cones even in the long term. Confocal and electron microscopy examination of the retinas of the rd10 EE and ST mice at 1 year of age showed major degeneration of the photoreceptor layer in both experimental groups, with small clusters of photoreceptors persisting in the peripheral retina. These vestigial cells were positive for L and M opsins and cone arrestin and represented the residual population of cones. In the retinas of the EE mice, cones were more numerous and less remodeled than in the ST counterparts, albeit virtually devoid of outer segments, as confirmed with electron microscopy (EM) observations. Cone counting in retinal whole mounts showed that rd10 EE mice at 1 year had almost three times as many surviving cones (34,000±4,000) as the ST control mice (12,700±1,800), t test p=0.003. Accordingly, the rd10 EE mice at 1 year of age were still capable of performing the visual water task in photopic conditions, showing a residual visual acuity of 0.138±0 cycles/degree. This ability was virtually absent in the rd10 ST age-matched mice (0.063±0.014), t test, p=0.029. No major differences were detected in the morphology of the neurons of the inner retina between the two experimental groups.The approaches used to test the effects of an EE were consistent in showing significantly better preservation of cones and measurable visual acuity in 1-year-old rd10 EE mice. We therefore confirm and extend previous findings that showed an EE is an effective, minimally invasive tool for promoting long-lasting retinal protection in experimental models of RP.
    Document Type:
    Reference
    Product Catalog Number:
    Multiple
    Product Catalog Name:
    Multiple