A food restriction protocol that increases drug reward decreases tropomyosin receptor kinase B in the ventral tegmental area, with no effect on brain-derived neurotrophic factor or tropomyosin receptor kinase B protein levels in dopaminergic forebrain regions

Abstract Food restriction (FR) decreases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in hypothalamic and hindbrain regions that regulate feeding and metabolic efficiency, while increasing expression in hippocampal and neocortical regions. Drugs of abuse alter BDNF expression within the mesoc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience 2011-12, Vol.197, p.330-338
Main Authors: Pan, Y, Chau, L, Liu, S, Avshalumov, M.V, Rice, M.E, Carr, K.D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
BDNF
Biological and medical sciences
Blotting, Western
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor - analysis
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor - biosynthesis
Caudate-putamen
Cortex
Cortex (prefrontal)
Data processing
Dopamine
Dopamine receptors
Drug abuse
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
ERK1/2
Feeding
Firing rate
Food availability
Food Deprivation - physiology
food restriction
Forebrain
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Glutamic acid receptors
Hindbrain
Hippocampus
Hypothalamus
Male
MAP Kinase Signaling System - physiology
mRNA
Neostriatum
Neurochemistry
Neurology
Neurons
Neurotransmission
Nucleus accumbens
Patch-Clamp Techniques
Plasticity (synaptic)
Prosencephalon - drug effects
Prosencephalon - metabolism
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
Receptor, trkB - analysis
Receptor, trkB - biosynthesis
Reinforcement
Residual effects
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Reward
RNA, Messenger - analysis
Signal transduction
Street Drugs - pharmacology
Substantia nigra
TrkB
TrkB receptors
Tropomyosin
ventral tegmental area
Ventral Tegmental Area - drug effects
Ventral Tegmental Area - metabolism
Ventral tegmentum
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract Food restriction (FR) decreases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in hypothalamic and hindbrain regions that regulate feeding and metabolic efficiency, while increasing expression in hippocampal and neocortical regions. Drugs of abuse alter BDNF expression within the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway, and modifications of BDNF expression within this pathway alter drug-directed behavior. Although FR produces a variety of striatal neuroadaptations and potentiates the rewarding effects of abused drugs, the effects of FR on BDNF expression and function within the DA pathway are unknown. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of FR on protein levels of BDNF and its tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) receptor in component structures of the mesocorticolimbic pathway. Three to four weeks of FR, with stabilization of rats at 80% of initial body weight, did not alter BDNF or TrkB levels in nucleus accumbens, caudate-putamen, or medial prefrontal cortex. However, FR decreased TrkB levels in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), without change in levels of BDNF protein or mRNA. The finding that FR also decreased TrkB levels in substantia nigra, with elevation of BDNF protein, suggests that decreased TrkB in VTA could be a residual effect of increased BDNF during an earlier phase of FR. Voltage-clamp recordings in VTA DA neurons indicated decreased glutamate receptor transmission. These data might predict lower average firing rates in FR relative to ad libitum fed subjects, which would be consistent with previous evidence of decreased striatal DA transmission and upregulation of postsynaptic DA receptor signaling. However, FR subjects also displayed elevated VTA levels of phospho-ERK1/2, which is an established mediator of synaptic plasticity. Because VTA neurons are heterogeneous with regard to neurochemistry, function, and target projections, the relationship(s) between the three changes observed in VTA, and their involvement in the augmented striatal and behavioral responsiveness of FR subjects to drugs of abuse, remains speculative.
ISSN:0306-4522
1873-7544
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.08.065