Browsing by Subject "CNO"

Obesity is considered one of the major public health challenges. One way to control obesity is to regulate appetite. Because brain is the primary regulative unit responsible for food intake, the research in this field has now been allocated especially to the central nervous system. The aim of this thesis was to clarify the role of cholinergic projections from pedunculopontine tegmentum (PPT) to lateral hypothalamus (LH) in food intake. In this study, DREADD-technology (designed receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs) based on chemogenetics was utilized with a gene manipulated mouse strain. For the experimental part of this work the mice were divided in three separate groups: one transducted with an activating DREADD-receptor (hM3Dq), one transducted with an inhibiting DREADD-receptor (hM4Di) and one transducted only with a fluorescent protein called m-Cherry. The last group was also defined as a control group of this study. In addition, the gene which coded m-Cherry fluorescent protein was transducted together with hM3Dq- and hM4Di-receptor genes for the first two groups to be able to examine the receptor expression later. At the baseline level, no differences were observed in food intake between the three study groups. The food intake did not differ between the groups while clozapine-N-oxide (CNO), a selective DREADD-receptor ligand, was administered straight into the LH area (0,03 µg/injection) with or without fasting of the animals. While administrating CNO to the mice intraperitoneally (1 mg/kg), the hM3Dq-group mice were observed to consume more food compared to the hM4Di-group or the control group. This difference was detected while food consumption was examined cumulatively during total four measuring hours. When the animals were fasted before the intraperitoneal administration test, however no differences were found between the study groups regarding food intake. As a conclusion of this study, cholinergic projections from pedunculopontine tegmentum (PPT) to lateral hypothalamus (LH) were not regulating food intake in mice. However, the cholinergic cells in PPT and some of their axons might be involved in the regulation of food intake while the food consumption is studied continuously and long-term. More studies are required to better define the role of the cholinergic projections from pedunculopontine tegmentum (PPT) to lateral hypothalamus (LH) in food intake.