RESEARCH ARTICLE

c-Fos expression in rat brainstem following intake of sucrose or saccharin

  • Ke Chen 1 ,
  • Jianqun Yan , 1,2 ,
  • Jinrong Li 1 ,
  • Bo Lv 1 ,
  • Xiaolin Zhao 1
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  • 1. Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
  • 2. Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases, Ministry of Education, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China

Received date: 22 Jan 2011

Accepted date: 10 Jun 2011

Published date: 05 Sep 2011

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

To examine whether the activation of brainstem neurons during intake of a sweet tastant is due to orosensory signals or post-ingestive factors, we compared the distribution of c-Fos-like immunoreactivity (c-FLI) in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) and parabrachial nucleus (PBN) of brainstem following ingestion of 0.25 M sucrose or 0.005 M saccharin solutions. Immunopositive neurons were localized mainly in the middle zone of the PBN and four rostral-caudal subregions of the NST. Intake of sucrose increased the number of FLI neurons in almost every subnucleus of the PBN (F(2,13) = 7.610, P = 0.023), in addition to the caudal NST at the level of the area postrema (F(2,13) = 10.777, P = 0.003) and the NST intermediate zone (F(2,13) = 7.193, P = 0.014). No significant increase in the number of c-Fos positive neurons was detected in response to saccharin ingestion, although there was a trend towards a modest increase in a few select NST and PBN nuclei. These results suggest that the PBN and NST may be involved in sweet taste perception and modulation of sweet tastant intake, but the significantly enhanced intensity of Fos expression induced by sucrose indicates that PBN/NST neuronal activity is driven by the integrated effects of sweet taste sensation and post-ingestive signals.

Cite this article

Ke Chen , Jianqun Yan , Jinrong Li , Bo Lv , Xiaolin Zhao . c-Fos expression in rat brainstem following intake of sucrose or saccharin[J]. Frontiers of Medicine, 2011 , 5(3) : 294 -301 . DOI: 10.1007/s11684-011-0144-8

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30970973) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
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