Evidence for the involvement of AV3V in the circulating IL-1 beta-to-braincommunication

The anteroventral region of the third ventricle (AV3V) in rats contains neu rons which are highly sensitive to PGE(2) and exhibits the highest pyrogeni c sensitivity to microinjected PGE(2) and 17-phenyl-omega-trinor-PGE(2). AV 3V neurons, which are electrophysiologically identified to send axons to th e medial preoptic area and the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, alter the activity in a prostanoid-dependent way in response to systemic administ ration of interleukin-1 beta. The results suggest that the AV3V surrounding the organum vasculosum laminae terminalis is one of the sites where the in formation of cytokines is converted to neural signals for the development o f acute phase responses. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .