Neuropeptide Y influences acute food intake and energy status affects NPY immunoreactivity in the female musk shrew (Suncus murinus)

Food availability, energetic constraints and reproductive development in a wild seasonally breeding songbird

In many organisms, food availability is a proximate cue that synchronizes seasonal development of the reproductive system with optimal environmental conditions. Growth of the gonads and secondary sexual characteristics is orchestrated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis. However, our understanding of the physiological mechanisms by which food availability modulates activity of the HPG axis is limited.

It is thought that many factors, including energetic status, modulate seasonal reproductive activation. We tested the hypothesis that food availability modulates the activity of the HPG axis in a songbird. Specifically, we food‐restricted captive adult male Abert's Towhees Melozone aberti for 2 or 4 weeks during photoinduced reproductive development. A third group (control) received ad libitum food throughout. We measured multiple aspects of the reproductive system including endocrine activity of all three levels of the HPG axis [i.e. hypothalamic gonadotropin‐releasing hormone‐I (GnRH‐I), plasma luteinizing hormone (LH) and testosterone (T)], and gonad morphology. Furthermore, because gonadotropin‐inhibitory hormone (GnIH) and neuropeptide Y (NPY; a potent orexigenic peptide) potentially integrate information on food availability into seasonal reproductive development, we also measured the brain levels of these peptides.

At the hypothalamic level, we detected no effect of food restriction on immunoreactive (ir) GnRH‐I, but the duration of food restriction was inversely related to the size of ir‐GnIH perikarya. Furthermore, the number of ir‐NPY cells was higher in food‐restricted than control birds. Food restriction did not influence photoinduced testicular growth, but decreased plasma LH and T, and width of the cloacal protuberance, an androgen‐sensitive secondary sexual characteristic. Returning birds to ad libitum food availability had no effect on plasma LH or T, but caused the cloacal protuberance to rapidly increase in size to that of ad libitum‐fed birds.

Our results support the tenet that food availability modulates photoinduced reproductive activation. However, they also suggest that this modulation is complex and depends upon the level of the HPG axis considered. At the hypothalamic level, our results are consistent with a role for the GnIH and NPY systems in integrating information on energetic status. There also appears to be a role for endocrine function at the anterior pituitary gland and testicular levels in modulating reproductive development in the light of energetic status and independently of testicular growth.

Intermittent fasting dietary restriction regimen negatively influences reproduction in young rats: a study of hypothalamo-hypophysial-gonadal axis

Nutritional infertility is very common in societies where women fail to eat enough to match their energy expenditure and such females often present as clinical cases of anorexia nervosa. The cellular and molecular mechanisms that link energy balance and central regulation of reproduction are still not well understood. Peripheral hormones such as estradiol, testosterone and leptin, as well as neuropeptides like kisspeptin and neuropeptides Y (NPY) play a potential role in regulation of reproduction and energy balance with their primary target converging on the hypothalamic median eminence-arcuate region. The present study was aimed to explore the effects of negative energy state resulting from intermittent fasting dietary restriction (IF-DR) regimen on complete hypothalamo-hypophysial-gonadal axis in Wistar strain young female and male rats. Significant changes in body weight, blood glucose, estrous cyclicity and serum estradiol, testosterone and LH level indicated the negative role of IF-DR regimen on reproduction in these young animals. Further, it was elucidated whether serum level of metabolic hormone, leptin plays a mechanistic role in suppressing hypothalamo-hypophysial-gonadal (HPG) axis via energy regulators, kisspeptin and NPY in rats on IF-DR regimen. We also studied the effect of IF-DR regimen on structural remodeling of GnRH axon terminals in median eminence region of hypothalamus along with the glial cell marker, GFAP and neuronal plasticity marker, PSA-NCAM using immunostaining, Western blotting and RT-PCR. Together these data suggest that IF-DR regimen negatively influences reproduction in young animals due to its adverse effects on complete hypothalamus-hypophysial-gonadal axis and may explain underlying mechanism(s) to understand the clinical basis of nutritional infertility.

Microarray-based identification of gonad transcripts differentially expressed between lines of Pacific oyster selected to be resistant or susceptible to summer mortality

Summer mortality of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is the result of a complex interaction between oysters, their environment, and pathogens. Heredity appears to be a major factor determining the sensitivity of oysters to summer mortality, allowing resistant (R) and susceptible (S) lines to be produced. We conducted genome-wide expression profiling of R and S gonads during the 3-month period preceding a summer mortality event, using a cDNA microarray that we designed. ANOVA analysis revealed that 34 genes were differentially expressed between R and S lines on four dates preceding the mortality event. Annotation of some of these genes highlights reproduction and its allocation and antioxidant defenses as the main pathways that operate differentially between R and S lines. This transcriptional analysis provides new indications to define markers for quantitative trait loci searches and functional studies and evaluate the potential role of each gene in the resistance to summer mortality.

Neuronal relationship between orexin-A- and neuropeptide Y-induced orexigenic actions in goldfish

Orexin-induced orexigenic action is mediated by neuropeptide Y (NPY) in goldfish and rodents. A previous study indicated that NPY-induced orexigenic action may also be mediated by orexin-A in goldfish. However, there is little information about the mutual actions of orexin-A and NPY in the goldfish. Therefore, using their specific receptor antagonists, we examined whether the orexigenic actions of orexin-A and NPY mutually interact in the goldfish. The stimulatory effect of intracerebroventricular injection of NPY at 1 pmol/g body weight (BW) on food intake was abolished by treatment with the orexin receptor-1 antagonist, SB334867, at 10 pmol/g BW whereas the NPY Y1-receptor antagonist, BIBP3226, at 100 pmol/g BW attenuated orexin-A (at 2.8 pmol/g BW)-stimulated feeding. This led us, using a double-immunostaining method and confocal laser scanning microscopy, to investigate whether orexin-A- and NPY-containing neurons in the goldfish brain have direct mutual inputs. Orexin-A- and NPY-like immunoreactivities were distributed throughout the brain, especially in the diencephalon. Orexin-A- and NPY-containing neurons were located in a region of the hypothalamus, the nucleus posterioris periventricularis (NPPv), in close proximity to each other: NPY-containing nerve fibers or endings lay in close apposition to orexin-A-containing neurons in the NPPv, and orexin-A-containing nerve fibers or endings also lay in close apposition to NPY-containing neurons in the same region. These results indicate that, in goldfish, orexin-A- and NPY-induced orexigenic actions are mediated by mutual signaling pathways.

Chemotherapy agent cisplatin induces 48-h Fos expression in the brain of a vomiting species, the house musk shrew (Suncus murinus)

Cancer chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin, potently produce nausea and vomiting. Acute effects of these treatments are partly controlled by antiemetic drugs, but the delayed effects (>24 h), especially nausea, are more difficult to treat. It is unknown what brain pathways produce this delayed sickness. Our prior data show that brain Fos expression is increased for at least 48 h after cisplatin treatment in the rat, a nonvomiting species. Here, we extend these observations by using house musk shrews (Suncus murinus), a species with an emetic response. Compared with saline injection, cisplatin treatment (30 mg/kg ip) induced Fos expression in hindbrain areas known to play a role in the generation of emesis, the dorsal motor nucleus (DMN), the area postrema, and the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), for up to 48 h. Cisplatin also stimulated Fos expression in the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) of the midbrain and the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) for at least 48 h after treatment. When animals were pretreated with the antiemetic palonosetron, a long-term serotonin type 3 (5-HT(3)) receptor antagonist, cisplatin-induced Fos expression was significantly attenuated in the NTS, DMN, and CeA at 6 h but not at 48 h. These results indicate that cisplatin activates a neural system that includes the dorsal vagal complex and forebrain in the musk shrew, which is partially suppressed by a 5-HT(3) receptor antagonist. Our findings suggest the existence of an extensive neural system that could be targeted to reduce nausea, vomiting, and malaise in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

Duck cerebellum participates in regulation of food intake via the neurotransmitters serotonin and neuropeptide Y

Two important neurotransmitters, serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) and neuropeptide Y (NPY), have been confirmed to be involved in food intake regulation. To clarify whether the cerebellum participates in modulation of food intake through these two neurotransmitters, we investigated the distribution and expression levels of 5-HT and NPY in cerebellum of the duck. Our results showed that 5-HT and NPY were distributed only at the Purkinje cell layer of the duck cerebellum. Moreover, the expression level of 5-HT in fasted (4 h) and tryptophan (100-200 mg/kg)-treated ducks was significantly higher than that in control animals (P<0.01), whereas the expression of NPY was significantly decreased (P<0.01). Therefore, our results indicated that inhibitory regulation of food intake respectively increased and decreased cerebellar 5-HT and NPY in the duck.