Catecholaminergic enzymes, vasopressin and oxytocin distribution in Siberian hamster brain.

Siberian hamsters exhibit marked seasonal changes in physiology and behavior that are triggered by the daylength and that can be mimicked in the laboratory by changing the photoperiod, making them a convenient and popular species for the study of regulatory biology. Because no atlas of neurotransmitter distribution exists for this species, the purpose of the present study was to map the distribution of cell bodies containing catecholaminergic synthetic enzymes (tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase) and several neurotransmitters (arginine vasopressin and oxytocin) in Siberian hamster brain using immunocytochemistry. The distributions of these catecholaminergic synthetic enzymes and neurotransmitters largely were similar to those for Syrian hamsters with some notable differences. There were novel groups of neurotransmitter- or synthetic enzyme-immunoreactive neurons such as tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive cells in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, dopamine-beta-hydroxylase-immunoreactive cells in the motor trigeminal, hypoglossal, and paraabducens nuclei, and arginine vasopressin- and oxytocin-immunoreactive cells within the nucleus of the diagonal band, dorsal hypothalamic area, and arcuate nucleus compared with Syrian hamsters. This is the first description of the distribution of cell bodies for some commonly studied catecholaminergic synthetic enzymes and peptides in Siberian hamsters.