Relationship between melanin-concentrating hormone- and neuropeptide Y-containing neurons in the goldfish hypothalamus

• Published in: Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology Vol. 153; no. 1; pp. 3 - 7
• Main Authors: Matsuda, Kouhei, Kojima, Kenji, Shimakura, Sei-Ichi, Miura, Tohru, Uchiyama, Minoru, Shioda, Seiji, Ando, Hironori, Takahashi, Akiyoshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.05.2009
• Subjects: Animals; Brain; Carassius auratus; Food intake; Freshwater; Goldfish; Goldfish - metabolism; Hypothalamic Hormones - metabolism; Hypothalamus; Hypothalamus - cytology; Hypothalamus - metabolism; Immunohistochemistry; MCH; Melanins - metabolism; Neuronal interaction; Neurons - cytology; Neurons - metabolism; Neuropeptide Y - metabolism; NPY; Pituitary Hormones - metabolism; Brain; MCH; Food intake; NPY; Goldfish; Hypothalamus; Neuronal interaction
• ISSN: 1095-6433; 1531-4332
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2008.10.002

Intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) inhibits food intake in goldfish, unlike the orexigenic action in rodents, via the melanocortin system with suppression of neuropeptide Y (NPY) mRNA expression. We therefore investigated the neuronal relationship between MCH- and NPY-containing neurons in the goldfish brain, using a double-immunofluorescence method and confocal laser scanning microscopy. MCH- and NPY-like immunoreactivities were distributed throughout the brain. In particular, MCH-containing nerve fibers or endings lay in close apposition to NPY-containing neurons in a specific region of the hypothalamus, the nucleus posterioris periventricularis (NPPv). These observations suggest that MCH-containing neurons provide direct input to NPY-containing neurons in the NPPv of goldfish, and that MCH plays a crucial role in the regulation of feeding behavior as an anorexigenic neuropeptide, inhibiting the orexigenic activity of NPY.