The thermogenic activity of interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT) in response to physiologic stimuli, such as cold exposure, is controlled by its sympathetic innervation. To determine which brain regions might be involved in the regulation of cold-evoked increases in sympathetic outflow to IBAT, the present study compared central nervous system (CNS) areas activated by cold exposure with brain regions anatomically linked to the sympathetic innervation of IBAT. Immunocytochemical localization of Fos was examined in the brains of rats exposed to 4 degrees C for 4 hours. In a separate group of rats, the neural circuit involved in IBAT control, including the location of sympathetic preganglionic neurons in the spinal cord, was characterized with pseudorabies virus, a retrograde transynaptic tracer. Central noradrenergic and serotonergic groups related to the sympathetic outflow to IBAT also were identified. Localization of viral antigens at different survival times (66-96 hours) revealed infection in circumscribed CNS populations, but only a subset of the regions comprising this circuitry showed cold-evoked Fos expression. The raphe pallidus and the ventromedial parvicellular subdivision of the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVH), both infected at early survival times, were the main areas containing sympathetic premotor neurons activated by cold exposure. Major cold-sensitive areas projecting to spinal interneurons or to regions containing sympathetic premotor neurons, which became infected at intermediate intervals, included lateral hypothalamic, perifornical, and retrochiasmatic areas, anterior and posterior PVH, ventrolateral periaqueductal gray, and Barrington's nucleus. Areas infected later, most likely related to reception of cold-related signals, comprised the lateral preoptic area, parastrial nucleus, dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus, lateral parabrachial nucleus, and nucleus of the solitary tract. These interconnected areas, identified by combining functional and retrograde anatomic approaches, likely constitute the central circuitry responsible for the increase in sympathetic outflow to IBAT during cold-evoked thermogenesis.

Induced prostanoid synthesis by cells associated with the cerebral vasculature has been implicated in mediating immune system influences on the CNS, but the cell type(s) involved remain unsettled. To determine whether this might derive from differences in the nature and intensity of the stimuli used to model immune insults, immunochemical and hybridization histochemical methods were used to monitor cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression alone, or in conjunction with endothelial, perivascular, and glial cell markers, in brains of rats treated with varying doses of interleukin-1 (IL-1) or bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Vehicle-treated animals displayed weak COX-2 expression in the meninges, choroid plexus, and larger blood vessels. Rats challenged intravenously with IL-1beta (1.87-30 microgram/kg) showed a marked increase in the number of vascular-associated cells displaying COX-2-immunoreactivity (ir). More than 90% stained positively for the ED2 macrophage differentiation antigen, identifying them as perivascular cells, whereas none coexpressed endothelial or glial cell markers. Low doses of LPS (0.1 microgram/kg) elicited a similar response profile, but higher doses (2-100 microgram/kg) provoked COX-2 expression in a progressively greater number of cells exhibiting distinct round or multipolar morphologies, corresponding to cells expressing endothelial (RECA-1) or perivascular (ED2) cell antigens, respectively. Similarly, ultrastructural analysis localized COX-2-ir to the perinuclear region of endothelial cells of LPS-treated but not IL-1-treated rats. We conclude that perivascular cells exhibit the lower threshold to COX-2 expression in response to either IL-1 or endotoxin treatment, and that enzyme expression by endothelial cells requires one or more facets of the more complex immune stimulus presented by LPS.

Cytokines produced during infection/inflammation activate adaptive CNS responses, including acute stress responses mediated by the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The mechanisms by which cytokines engage HPA control circuitry remain unclear, though stimulated release of prostanoids from neighboring vascular cells has been implicated in this regard. How specific vascular cell types, endothelial cells (ECs) vs. perivascular cells (PVCs; a subset of brain-resident macrophages), participate in this response remains unsettled. We exploited the phagocytic activity of PVCs to deplete them in rats by central injection of a liposome-encapsulated pro-apoptotic drug. This manipulation abrogated CNS and hormonal indices of HPA activation under immune challenge conditions (interleukin-1; IL-1) that activated prostanoid synthesis only in PVCs, while enhancing these responses to stimuli (lipopolysaccaride; LPS) that engaged prostanoid production by ECs as well. Thus, PVCs provide both prostanoid-mediated drive to the HPA axis, and an anti-inflammatory action that constrains endothelial, and overall CNS, responses to inflammatory insults.

Catecholamine-containing projections from the medulla have been implicated in the mediation of activational responses of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH) provoked by moderate doses of interleukin-1 (IL-1). To test the generality of this mechanism, rats bearing unilateral transections of aminergic projections were challenged with intravenous IL-1 (2 microg/kg), bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 0.1, 2.0, or 100 microg/kg), or saline and perfused 3 hours later; their brains were then prepared for quantitative analysis of Fos induction and relative levels of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) mRNA. LPS provoked a robust and dose-related increase in Fos expression within the PVH on the intact side of the brain at all doses tested; the response to IL-1 approximated that to the lowest LPS dose. On the lesioned side, Fos induction was significantly reduced at all dosage levels but was eliminated only at the lowest dosage. The percentage reduction was greatest (75%) in IL-1-challenged rats and was progressively less in animals treated with increasing LPS doses (67, 59, and 46%, respectively). Specificity of aminergic involvement was tested by using intra-PVH administration of the axonally transported catecholamine immunotoxin, antiDBH-saporin. This treatment abolished IL-1-induced elevations of Fos-ir and CRF mRNA in the PVH but left intact comparable responses to restraint stress. These data support a specific involvement of ascending catecholaminergic projections in mediating PVH responses to IL-1 and LPS. Residual Fos induction seen in lesioned animals in response to higher doses of LPS provides a basis for probing additional circuits that may be recruited in a hierarchical manner in response to more strenuous or complex immune insults.

Hemorrhage and nonhypotensive hypovolemia are known to increase plasma levels of oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VP) in rats. The present experiments demonstrated that secretion of OT and VP also are stimulated by acute drug-induced hypotension. Injection of hydralazine abruptly decreased arterial blood pressure in conscious rats and induced Fos expression, a marker of neuronal activation, within OT and VP neurons in the hypothalamus. Hydralazine also elicited substantial increases in plasma levels of both OT and VP. Injection of chlorisondamine similarly elicited acute hypotension and increased plasma levels of OT and VP. Furthermore, when the hypotensive effect of chlorisondamine was blunted by coinfusion of phenylephrine, the induced increases in OT and VP were markedly attenuated. Across all treatments, arterial blood pressure was inversely related to plasma levels of OT and VP. Plasma osmolality was not increased by hydralazine, nor was there evidence of gastric malaise, two known stimuli for OT secretion in rats. These results suggest that arterial hypotension increases neurohypophysial release of OT and VP in conscious rats.