Site-specific induction of Fos immunoreactivity in preoptic and hypothalamic NADPH-positive neurons during glucoprivation.

Neuronal nitric oxide synthase, e.g. NADPH diaphorase (NADPH-d), catalyzes formation of the free radical, nitric oxide (NO), and occurs within brain structures that have functional significance for energy fuel homeostasis. The following studies examined whether populations of NADPH-d-positive neurons in the hypothalamus and nearby preoptic area express immunoreactivity for the nuclear transcription factor, Fos, in response to glucose substrate imbalance. Eight days after bilateral ovariectomy (OVX) and subcutaneous implantation of silastic capsules containing 30 microgram estradiol benzoate/ml, female rats were injected i.p. with the glucose antimetabolite, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG; 400 mg/kg), or the vehicle, saline. The animals were sacrificed by transcardial perfusion 2 h after these treatments. Sections at 150-micrometer intervals throughout preoptic area and anterior and tuberal regions of the hypothalamus were processed for dual cytoplasmic NADPH-d enzyme activity and nuclear Fos-immunoreactivity (-ir). The glucose antimetabolite elicited expression of nuclear Fos-ir by NADPH-d-positive neurons in several neural structures, including the medial preoptic area, median preoptic nucleus, anterior commissural, periventricular magnocellular supraoptic nucleus, paraventricular nucleus, and medial part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. In contrast, the extensive populations of NADPH-d-positive neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus and lateral hypothalamic area showed very little immunolabeling for Fos in response to glucoprivation. This demonstration of nuclear immunoreactivity for Fos suggests that cellular glucopenia elicits the transcriptional activation, via AP-1 regulatory sites, of multiple populations of hypothalamic neurons characterized by the functional capacity to generate NO, and thus that this gaseous neurotransmitter may fulfill a role(s) in central neural mechanisms governing regulation of compensatory motor responses to metabolic imbalance.