Kocsis K, Kiss J, Csáki A, Halász B
Department of Human Morphology and Developmental Biology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Semmelweis University, 1094 Budapest, Hungary.
Brain Res Bull. 2003 Aug 30;61(4):459-68. doi: 10.1016/s0361-9230(03)00180-1.
The medial preoptic area is a key structure in the neural control of reproduction. Considerable evidence has accumulated indicating that glutamatergic innervation of the area plays an important role in this control. Sources of the glutamatergic input are unknown. Present investigations were aimed at studying this question. [3H]D-aspartate, which is selectively taken up by high-affinity uptake sites at presynaptic endings that use glutamate or aspartate as a transmitter, and is transported back to the cell body, was injected into the medial preoptic area. The neurons retrogradely labelled with [3H]D-aspartate were detected autoradiographically. Labelled cells were found in several telencephalic and diencephalic structures, but not in the brainstem. Within the telencephalon, labelled neurons were detected in the lateral septum, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and amygdala. Diencephalic structures included the medial preoptic area itself, hypothalamic paraventricular, suprachiasmatic, ventromedial, arcuate, ventral premammillary, supramammillary and thalamic paraventricular nuclei. All of them are known to project to this area. The findings provide the first neuromorphological data on the location of putative glutamatergic neurons projecting to the medial preoptic area. Furthermore, they indicate that local putative glutamatergic neurons as well as several telencephalic and diencephalic structures contribute to the glutamatergic innervation of the area.
内侧视前区是生殖神经控制中的关键结构。大量证据表明，该区域的谷氨酸能神经支配在这种控制中发挥着重要作用。谷氨酸能输入的来源尚不清楚。目前的研究旨在探讨这个问题。将[3H]D-天冬氨酸注入内侧视前区，[3H]D-天冬氨酸可被以谷氨酸或天冬氨酸作为递质的突触前终末的高亲和力摄取位点选择性摄取，并被转运回细胞体。通过放射自显影术检测用[3H]D-天冬氨酸逆行标记的神经元。在几个端脑和间脑结构中发现了标记细胞，但在脑干中未发现。在端脑内，在外侧隔、终纹床核和杏仁核中检测到标记神经元。间脑结构包括内侧视前区本身、下丘脑室旁核、视交叉上核、腹内侧核、弓状核、腹侧乳头前核、乳头体上核和丘脑室旁核。已知所有这些结构都投射到该区域。这些发现提供了关于投射到内侧视前区的假定谷氨酸能神经元位置的首个神经形态学数据。此外，它们表明局部假定的谷氨酸能神经元以及几个端脑和间脑结构对该区域的谷氨酸能神经支配有贡献。
