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Colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain
BACKGROUND: Gap junction proteins, connexins, are expressed in most endocrine and exocrine glands in the body and are at least in some glands crucial for the hormonal secretion. To what extent connexins are expressed in neurons releasing hormones or neuropeptides from or within the central nervous s...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2009
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2688509/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19405960 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-10-41 |
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author | Westberg, Lars Sawa, Evelyn Wang, Alice Y Gunaydin, Lisa A Ribeiro, Ana C Pfaff, Donald W |
author_facet | Westberg, Lars Sawa, Evelyn Wang, Alice Y Gunaydin, Lisa A Ribeiro, Ana C Pfaff, Donald W |
author_sort | Westberg, Lars |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Gap junction proteins, connexins, are expressed in most endocrine and exocrine glands in the body and are at least in some glands crucial for the hormonal secretion. To what extent connexins are expressed in neurons releasing hormones or neuropeptides from or within the central nervous system is, however, unknown. Previous studies provide indirect evidence for gap junction coupling between subsets of neuropeptide-containing neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus. Here we employ double labeling and retrograde tracing methods to investigate to what extent neuroendocrine and neuropeptide-containing neurons of the hypothalamus and brainstem express the neuronal gap junction protein connexin 36. RESULTS: Western blot analysis showed that connexin 36 is expressed in the PVN. In bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic mice, which specifically express the reporter gene Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (EGFP) under the control of the connexin 36 gene promoter, EGFP expression was detected in magnocellular (neuroendocrine) and in parvocellular neurons of the PVN. Although no EGFP/connexin36 expression was seen in neurons containing oxytocin or vasopressin, EGFP/connexin36 was found in subsets of PVN neurons containing corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), and in somatostatin neurons located along the third ventricle. Moreover, CRH neurons in brainstem areas, including the lateral parabrachial nucleus, also expressed EGFP/connexin 36. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that connexin 36 is expressed in subsets of neuroendocrine and CRH neurons in specific nuclei of the hypothalamus and brainstem. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2688509 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2009 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-26885092009-05-30 Colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain Westberg, Lars Sawa, Evelyn Wang, Alice Y Gunaydin, Lisa A Ribeiro, Ana C Pfaff, Donald W BMC Neurosci Research Article BACKGROUND: Gap junction proteins, connexins, are expressed in most endocrine and exocrine glands in the body and are at least in some glands crucial for the hormonal secretion. To what extent connexins are expressed in neurons releasing hormones or neuropeptides from or within the central nervous system is, however, unknown. Previous studies provide indirect evidence for gap junction coupling between subsets of neuropeptide-containing neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus. Here we employ double labeling and retrograde tracing methods to investigate to what extent neuroendocrine and neuropeptide-containing neurons of the hypothalamus and brainstem express the neuronal gap junction protein connexin 36. RESULTS: Western blot analysis showed that connexin 36 is expressed in the PVN. In bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic mice, which specifically express the reporter gene Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (EGFP) under the control of the connexin 36 gene promoter, EGFP expression was detected in magnocellular (neuroendocrine) and in parvocellular neurons of the PVN. Although no EGFP/connexin36 expression was seen in neurons containing oxytocin or vasopressin, EGFP/connexin36 was found in subsets of PVN neurons containing corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), and in somatostatin neurons located along the third ventricle. Moreover, CRH neurons in brainstem areas, including the lateral parabrachial nucleus, also expressed EGFP/connexin 36. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that connexin 36 is expressed in subsets of neuroendocrine and CRH neurons in specific nuclei of the hypothalamus and brainstem. BioMed Central 2009-04-30 /pmc/articles/PMC2688509/ /pubmed/19405960 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-10-41 Text en Copyright © 2009 Westberg et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Westberg, Lars Sawa, Evelyn Wang, Alice Y Gunaydin, Lisa A Ribeiro, Ana C Pfaff, Donald W Colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain |
title | Colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain |
title_full | Colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain |
title_fullStr | Colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain |
title_full_unstemmed | Colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain |
title_short | Colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain |
title_sort | colocalization of connexin 36 and corticotropin-releasing hormone in the mouse brain |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2688509/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19405960 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-10-41 |
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