Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, BK21 FOUR KNU Creative BioResearch Group, College of Natural Sciences, and Brain Science and Engineering Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea.
Cells. 2021 Feb 3;10(2):311. doi: 10.3390/cells10020311.
Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is found throughout the central nervous system where it appears to be involved in the regulation of a wide range of physiological effects. The Mongolian gerbil, a member of the rodent family Muridae, is a diurnal animal and has been widely used in various aspects of biomedical research. This study was conducted to investigate the organization of NPY-immunoreactive (IR) neurons in the gerbil visual cortex using NPY immunocytochemistry. The highest density of NPY-IR neurons was located in layer V (50.58%). The major type of NPY-IR neuron was a multipolar round/oval cell type (44.57%). Double-color immunofluorescence revealed that 89.55% and 89.95% of NPY-IR neurons contained gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) or somatostatin, respectively. Several processes of the NPY-IR neurons surrounded GABAergic interneurons. Although 30.81% of the NPY-IR neurons contained calretinin, NPY and calbindin-D28K-IR neurons were co-expressed rarely (3.75%) and NPY did not co-express parvalbumin. Triple-color immunofluorescence with anti-GluR2 or CaMKII antibodies suggested that some non-GABAergic NPY-IR neurons may make excitatory synaptic contacts. This study indicates that NPY-IR neurons have a notable architecture and are unique subpopulations of the interneurons of the gerbil visual cortex, which could provide additional valuable data for elucidating the role of NPY in the visual process in diurnal animals.
神经肽 Y（NPY）存在于中枢神经系统的各个部位，似乎参与了广泛的生理效应的调节。沙鼠，是仓鼠科的一种昼行性动物，已被广泛应用于生物医学研究的各个方面。本研究采用 NPY 免疫细胞化学方法，研究沙鼠视皮层 NPY 免疫反应（IR）神经元的组织分布。NPY-IR 神经元密度最高的部位位于第 V 层（50.58%）。NPY-IR 神经元的主要类型是多极圆形/椭圆形细胞（44.57%）。双色免疫荧光显示，89.55%和 89.95%的 NPY-IR 神经元分别含有γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）或生长抑素。NPY-IR 神经元的几个突起环绕 GABA 能中间神经元。虽然 30.81%的 NPY-IR 神经元含有钙结合蛋白（calretinin），但 NPY 和钙结合蛋白 D28K-IR 神经元很少共表达（3.75%），且 NPY 与 parvalbumin 不共表达。用抗 GluR2 或 CaMKII 抗体进行三色免疫荧光显示，一些非 GABA 能 NPY-IR 神经元可能形成兴奋性突触联系。本研究表明，NPY-IR 神经元具有显著的结构特征，是沙鼠视皮层中间神经元的独特亚群，这可能为阐明 NPY 在昼行性动物视觉过程中的作用提供额外有价值的数据。
