title: Glucose-monitoring neurons in the mediodorsal prefrontal cortex.
abstract: The mediodorsal prefrontal cortex (mdPFC), a key structure of the limbic neural circuitry, plays important roles in the central regulation of feeding. As an integrant part of the forebrain dopamine (DA) system, it performs complex roles via interconnections with various brain areas where glucose-monitoring (GM) neurons have been identified. The main goal of the present experiments was to examine whether similar GM neurons exist in the mediodorsal prefrontal cortex. To search for such chemosensory cells here, and to estimate their involvement in the DA circuitry, extracellular single neuron activity of the mediodorsal prefrontal cortex of anesthetized Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats was recorded by means of tungsten wire multibarreled glass microelectrodes during microelectrophoretic administration of d-glucose and DA. One fourth of the neurons tested changed in firing rate in response to glucose, thus, proved to be elements of the forebrain GM neural network. DA responsive neurons in the mdPFC were found to represent similar proportion of all cells; the glucose-excited units were shown to display excitatory whereas the glucose-inhibited neurons were demonstrated to exert mainly inhibitory responses to dopamine. The glucose-monitoring neurons of the mdPFC and their distinct DA sensitivity are suggested to be of particular significance in adaptive processes of the central feeding control.
authors.affiliation: Pécs University, Medical School, Institute of Physiology and Neurophysiology Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,Pécs, Hungary. bernadett.nagy@aok.pte.hu
authors.forename: Bernadett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: István
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Szabó
authors.forename: Szilárd
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Papp
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Takács
authors.forename: Csaba
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Szalay
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Karádi
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000166:cytology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D005947:Glucose; D004298:Dopamine