Tj. Kowalski et al., ONTOGENY OF NEUROPEPTIDE-Y EXPRESSION IN RESPONSE TO DEPRIVATION IN LEAN ZUCKER RAT PUPS, American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology, 44(2), 1998, pp. 466-470
Hypothalamic neuropeptide Y (NPY) activity is believed to play an impo
rtant role in the response to food deprivation in adult rats. Little i
s known, however, about the role of the hypothalamic NPY system in the
control of food intake in the preweanling rat. To address this issue,
we examined the effect of deprivation on arcuate nucleus preproNPY ex
pression in lean Zucker rat pups, using in situ hybridization. PreproN
PY expression within the arcuate nucleus was localized to cells in the
medial portion. Twenty-four hours of food, water, and maternal depriv
ation significantly increased the relative abundance of preproNPY mRNA
in pups on postnatal day (P)2, P9, P12, and P15 by 14-31%. This respo
nse, however, was not observed on P5. The absence of an effect on P5 a
nd the magnitude of the response at the other ages tested were not cor
related with the amount of weight lost during deprivation.