Effect of Melanotan-II on Brain Fos Immunoreactivity and Oxytocin Neuronal Activity and Secretion in Rats.
Melanocortins stimulate the central oxytocin systems that are involved in regulating social behaviours. Alterations in central oxytocin have been linked to neurological disorders such as autism, and melanocortins have been proposed for therapeutic treatment. In the present study, we investigated how systemic administration of melanotan-II (MT-II), a melanocortin agonist, affects oxytocin neuronal activity and secretion in rats. The results obtained show that i.v., but not intranasal, administration of MT-II markedly induced Fos expression in magnocellular neurones of the supraoptic (SON) and paraventricular nuclei (PVN) of the hypothalamus, and this response was attenuated by prior i.c.v. administration of the melanocortin antagonist, SHU-9119. Electrophysiological recordings from identified magnocellular neurones of the SON showed that i.v. administration of MT-II increased the firing rate in oxytocin neurones but did not trigger somatodendritic oxytocin release within the SON as measured by microdialysis. Our data suggest that, after i.v., but not intranasal, administration of MT-II, the activity of magnocellular neurones of the SON is increased. Because previous studies showed that SON oxytocin neurones are inhibited in response to direct application of melanocortin agonists, the actions of i.v. MT-II are likely to be mediated at least partly indirectly, possibly by activation of inputs from the caudal brainstem, where MT-II also increased Fos expression.
['Paiva|L|L|', 'Sabatier|N|N|', 'Leng|G|G|', 'Ludwig|M|M|']
D000281:Administration, Intranasal D061605:Administration, Intravenous D000818:Animals D057967:Infusions, Intraventricular D008297:Male D009074:Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormones D009474:Neurons D010121:Oxytocin D010286:Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus D010456:Peptides, Cyclic D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos D051381:Rats D013495:Supraoptic Nucleus D000521:alpha-MSH
SON hypothalamus microdialysis in vivo electrophysiology vasopressin