title: Immunocytochemical analysis of somatostatin in the hypothalamus of obese and non-obese Zucker rats.
abstract: Levels of growth hormone (GH) are reduced in the genetically obese Zucker rat, fa/fa, in comparison to lean littermates. In normal rats, GH release is regulated by stimulatory and inhibitory factors of hypothalamic origin. The present experiment focuses on hypothalamic somatostatin (SOM; growth hormone release inhibiting factor) in order to determine if abnormal hypothalamic SOM may be a correlate of depressed GH secretion in fa/fa rats. We compared immunocytochemical localization of hypothalamic SOM between 5 obese (fa/fa) Zucker rats and 5 non-obese littermates. Brain sections from pairs of animals were processed simultaneously. The distribution of SOM immunoreactive cell bodies in the hypothalamus agreed with previous reports. SOM-containing neurons in the periventricular area were counted and analyzed at 4 hypothalamic levels: (1) anterior to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN); (2) through SCN; (3) between SCN and the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH); and (4) through VMH. The greatest number of SOM-immunoreactive cell bodies was observed at levels (2) and (3). The numbers of SOM-containing cells did not differ significantly between obese and lean animals. No apparent difference in density of fiber staining was observed in the median eminence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown 44272.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: DonCarlos
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Finkelstein
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000166:cytology* / Q000473:pathology; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D009765:Obesity / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011924:Rats, Zucker; D013004:Somatostatin / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D013004:Somatostatin