title: Hypothalamic ventromedial nuclei amplify circadian rhythms: do they contain a food-entrained endogenous oscillator?
abstract: Several endogenous oscillators determine circadian rhythms. One, light-entrained, is in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), the others, food-entrained, are in unknown sites. To determine how the hypothalamic ventromedial nuclei (VMN) and feeding affect rhythms, we compared nocturnally active rats fed either ad libitum or for 2 hr/d during light [restricted feeding (RF)] and either with or without colchicine-induced disruption of VMN. We measured rhythms in temperature, locomotor activity, feeding, drinking, corticosterone, and the numbers of cells expressing c-Fos in light/dark in hypothalamic nuclei, the suprachiasmatic nuclei, and two major SCN targets, the subparaventricular zone (sPVNz) and paraventricular thalamus (pvTHAL). c-Fos cells were always light > dark in SCN, whereas the VMN and sPVNz lacked light/dark differences except after RF and RF plus VMN disruption, respectively. Controls fed ad libitum had high-amplitude rhythms and, generally, c-Fos cells dark > light. In RF controls, a c-Fos pattern dark > light occurred in VMN; generally, c-Fos cell numbers increased elsewhere maintaining dark > light. By contrast, levels of corticosterone peaked before food. In rats fed ad libitum, VMN with colchicine markedly reduced rhythm amplitudes, not phase. c-Fos patterns were abolished except in pvTHAL and SCN. In RF, VMN disruption blocked corticosterone and light/dark c-Fos patterns in all nuclei but produced a pattern in the sPVNz like SCN. We conclude that VMN amplify rhythmic output from the SCN, and the RF-induced rhythm in VMN enhances c-Fos activity driven by the SCN. The VMN may contain a food-entrained oscillator, and the sPVNz may integrate output from several oscillators.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0444, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yamat
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Dallman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001111:Arcuate Nucleus of Hypothalamus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000502:physiology; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D003078:Colchicine / Q000494:pharmacology; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D004326:Drinking / Q000502:physiology; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D007276:Injections, Intraventricular; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010286:Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D014697:Ventromedial Hypothalamic Nucleus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D003078:Colchicine; D003345:Corticosterone