Pharmacological manipulation of central nitric oxide/guanylate cyclase activity alters Fos expression by rat hypothalamic vasopressinergic neurons during acute glucose deprivation

Neurohypophyseal secretion of arginine vasopressin is stimulated by decreased systemic glucose availability. Nitric oxide is produced by paraventricular and supraoptic magnocellular neurons, and is implicated in central mechanisms controlling plasma vasopressin and glucose levels. The current studies investigated the role of this neurotransmitter in glucoprivic induction of AP-1 transcriptional activity in hypothalamic vasopressinergic neurons by examining whether pharmacological manipulation of central nitric oxide/guanylate cyclase/cGMP signaling alters nuclear accumulation of Fos immunoreactivity in these cells. Adult male rats pretreated by intraventricular administration of saline exhibited extensive colabeling of vasopressinergic neurons in both brain sites for Fos following systemic injection of the glucose antimetabolite, 2-deoxy-D-glucose. Pretreatment with the nitric oxide donor, SIN1, resulted in decreased numbers of paraventricular and supraoptic Fos-positive vasopressinergic neurons during glucoprivation. In other animals, coadministration of SIN1 and the nitric-oxide sensitive guanylate cyclase inhibitor, ODQ, prior to the antimetabolite reversed these inhibitory effects of SIN1 on Fos expression by these cells. Intracerebral administration of ODQ alone did not significantly enhance expression of Fos by vasopressinergic neurons in either site. The present studies demonstrate that exogenous activation of the nitric oxide/guanylate cyclase/cGMP pathway in the brain inhibits nuclear accumulation of the AP-1 transcription factor, Fos, in vasopressinergic neurons during cellular glucopenia, and suggest that this neurotransmitter is critical for transactivational effects of glucoprivation on these neuropeptidergic neurons. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.