Fenfluramine-induced c-fos in the striatum and hypothalamus: a tract-tracing study.
Systemic administration of DL-fenfluramine (20 mg kg-1), an indirect serotonergic agonist, induced widespread FOS-like protein in the rat caudate putamen (CPu), paraventricular nucleus (PVn) of the hypothalamus and several intralaminar thalamic nuclei. To ascertain whether the dopaminergic nigrostriatal system coordinated transcriptional effects on the CPu, discrete microinjections of dextran into the substantia nigra (cell group A9) were evaluated for retrograde axonal transport. The protein product was induced preferentially in medium-sized spiny nerve cells of the CPu. Dextran microinjections into the PVn demonstrated that perikarya bearing FOS-like protein projected their extensions directly to thalamic nuclei and indirectly to immunopositive neurons of the striatum. The significance of these latter results is discussed in terms of a possible dopaminergic mechanism.
Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo 14260-4110, USA.
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D000818:Animals; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000187:drug effects; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D005277:Fenfluramine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000187:drug effects*; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D011699:Putamen / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D013788:Thalamus / Q000187:drug effects
D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D005277:Fenfluramine