Project description:Salt loading (SL) and water deprivation (WD) are experimental challenges that are often used to study the osmotic circuitry of the brain. Central to this circuit is the supraoptic nucleus (SON) of the hypothalamus, which is responsible for the biosynthesis of the hormones, vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OXT), and their transport to terminals that reside in the posterior lobe of the pituitary. Upon osmotic challenge evoked by a change in blood volume or osmolality, the SON undergoes a function related plasticity that creates an environment that allows for an appropriate hormone response. Here, we have described the impact of SL and WD compared to euhydrated (EU) controls in terms of drinking and eating behaviour, body weight and recorded physiological data including circulating hormone data and plasma and urine osmolality. We have also used microarrays to profile the transcriptome of the SON following SL Microarrays were interrogated with RNA extracted from the supraoptic nucleus of either euhydrated (n=5) or 7-days salt loaded (2% w/v; n=5) rats. Each microarray represented an independent pool of 5 animals, and for each condition, 5 microarrays were performed.
Project description:Salt loading (SL) and water deprivation (WD) are experimental challenges that are often used to study the osmotic circuitry of the brain. Central to this circuit is the supraoptic nucleus (SON) of the hypothalamus, which is responsible for the biosynthesis of the hormones, vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OXT), and their transport to terminals that reside in the posterior lobe of the pituitary. Upon osmotic challenge evoked by a change in blood volume or osmolality, the SON undergoes a function related plasticity that creates an environment that allows for an appropriate hormone response. Here, we have described the impact of SL and WD compared to euhydrated (EU) controls in terms of drinking and eating behaviour, body weight and recorded physiological data including circulating hormone data and plasma and urine osmolality. We have also used microarrays to profile the transcriptome of the SON following SL
Project description:Our prior studies indicat age-dependent contralateral axonal sprouting following unilateral lesion of magnocellular neurons in the supraoptic nucleus. We performed Oxford Nanopore sequencing of the rat supraoptic nucleus to determine changes in DNA methylation with age.
