title: Aproteic diet decreases hypothalamic catecholamine turnover in adult male rats.
abstract: Previous reports indicate that malnutrition reduces reproductive functions. We have demonstrated that protein deprivation in the diet also causes reproductive dysfunction by reducing hypothalamic GnRH secretion. Noradrenaline and nitric oxide are modulators of GnRH secretion. Noradrenaline stimulates GnRH secretion and nitric oxide inhibits catecholamine release. This work studies the hypothalamic catecholaminergic and nitrergic neuron activity in Wistar adult male rats fed on an aproteic diet (AP) during 21 days; this treatment was started when rats were 70 days old. Our first experiment studied catecholamine turnover rate after inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase activity by injecting (i.p.) 400 mg/kg alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine. Our second experiment studied in vitro hypothalamic nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity in animals under the same diet. AP diet significantly decreased both noradrenaline (P<0.05) and dopamine (P<0.05) hypothalamic turnover rate. Noradrenaline turnover in cerebral cortex was not altered by the aproteic diet. However, hypothalamic NOS activity was not affected in animals fed on an AP diet. These results indicate that the lack of protein in the diet reduces catecholaminergic neuron activity in adult male rats by a NO-independent mechanism, thus suggesting that a decrease in noradrenergic activity may be involved in the reduction of GnRH secretion induced by an AP diet.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Paraguay 2155, 7 degrees piso, 1121, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: O J
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Ponzo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seilicovich
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rondina
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pisera
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Calcagno
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Scacchi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000378:metabolism; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000378:metabolism*; D011502:Protein-Energy Malnutrition / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012016:Reference Values; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase; D004298:Dopamine; D009638:Norepinephrine