Activated Oxytocin Neurons in the PVN-DVC Pathway in Asthmatic Rats

Abstract

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease, and the central nervous system (CNS) also participates in the pathogenesis of asthma. We previously reported the amygdala might regulate asthmatic attacks via projecting to the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN). The dorsal vagal complex (DVC) is a crucial region that modulates respiratory. This study aimed to observe the activity in both PVN and DVC and the connection between PVN and DVC in asthmatic rats. Immunohistochemistry was conducted to observe the changes in Fos and oxytocin (OT) expression. Retrograde tracing using wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP) and double immunohistochemistry for OT and Fos was used to observe the HRP/OT/Fos positive neurons distribution in the PVN. The results showed that during an asthma attack, the Fos positive neurons increased in both PVN and DVC over time. The expression of OT positive neurons in PVN showed a similar trend in parallel to the c-Fos positive neurons in PVN. The HRP retrograde-labeled neurons were densely distributed in the medial and lateral subnucleus in the PVN. OT + /HRP + and Fos + /OT + /HRP + accounted for 18.14%, and 2.37% of HRP-labeled neurons, respectively. Our study showed PVN and DVC were activated and the expression of OT positive neurons in PVN were increased over time during an asthma attack. The existence of connection between PVN and DVC suggested the OT neurons in PVN might project to DVC which might be involved in the pathogenesis of asthma.

Electroacupuncture ameliorates gastrointestinal dysfunction by modulating DMV cholinergic efferent signals to drive the vagus nerve in p-MCAO rats

“…Although neuronal projections between DMV cholinergic neurons and higher brain centers have been the subject of limited research, existing evidence suggests significant downstream projections from various brain areas to the NTS and DMV. These brain regions include the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, the central nucleus of the amygdala, and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis [ 9 , 42 , 43 ], and they contain neurons like oxytocin and orexin neurons, among others, which may exert indirect effects on DMV cholinergic neurons [ [44] , [45] , [46] ]. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to demonstrate that the development of gastrointestinal dysfunction after stroke is closely related to the loss of cholinergic signaling in the DMV, resulting in vagal depression.…”

Preventive Effect of Limosilactobacillus fermentum SCHY34 on Lead Acetate-Induced Neurological Damage in SD Rats

“…Combined with its specific receptor tyrosine kinase receptor B (TrkB), it induces phosphorylation at specific sites of the TrkB receptor and transmits BDNF signals to the nucleus for neuroprotection ( 55 ). The immediate-early genes c-fos and c-jun belong to a class of proto-oncogenes which can be induced by second messengers to respond quickly to external stimuli such as neurotransmitters, hormones, and nerve impulses ( 56 ). These genes express their expression products as third messengers to participate in the regulation of the transduction of signals closely related to learning and memory in cells ( 57 ).…”

Subtyping children with asthma by clustering analysis of mRNA expression data

“…In this study, it was calculated that differences in the cAMP signaling pathway were associated with the differentiation of asthma subtypes, but further experiments are needed to verify whether this is consistent with the above-documented pathways. A study in rats concluded that oxytocin neurons in the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus increased over time during an asthma attack (Chen et al, 2020). However, there was no further analysis of whether the oxytocin signaling pathway affects the asthma subtype.…”