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Biomedical subjects

G I Hatton

Publications and source records attributed to G I Hatton.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Intracellular electrophysiology of mammalian peptidergic neurons in rat hypothalamic slices.

The magnocellular neuropeptidergic cells (MNCs) of the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei have been a model for biochemical and physiological studies of peptidergic neurons in the mammalian brain, but nearly all the electrophysiological studies of these vasopressinergic and oxytocinergic neuroendocrine cells are based on extracellular recordings. This paper reviews recent literature on electrophysiological properties of neurons in the magnocellular nuclei in which the rat in vitro slice preparation and intracellular recording were used. Spontaneously occurring action potentials and synaptic potentials (excitatory and inhibitory) have been observed in hypothalamic slices. The spike patterns have included slow and irregular firing, short rapid bursts of inactivating spikes, and slow phasic discharge with prolonged active and silent periods. Some studies have shown that increased osmolality causes neuronal firing, but this area is controversial. Intracellular injections of lucifer yellow have shown that some MNCs are dye-coupled and electron microscopic observations with the freeze-fracture technique have revealed occasional gap junctions, thus suggesting that some MNCs are electrotonically coupled. Both excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials have been evoked with extracellular stimulation. Therefore, action potentials, synaptic potentials, burst discharges, and probably electrotonic coupling have been found with intracellular recording in mammalian neuroendocrine cells. Future studies with intracellular recording and staining followed by immunohistochemical identification of cells should provide significant new information on the membrane physiology and synaptic pharmacology of vasopressinergic and oxytocinergic cells.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1981

Puromycin-induced argyrophilia as an alternative to Golgi methods: reliable impregnations of hypothalamic cell groups following lateral ventricular injections in rats.

Parenchymal injections of puromycin were known to induce Golgi-like silver impregnations upon treatment with the cupric-silver method. We have found lateral ventricular injections (5 microliter, 0.1 M) also effective. Such injections consistently led to detailed Golgi-like profiles of cells in a number of hypothalamic regions including one, the paraventricular nucleus, which traditionally is quite recalcitrant to Golgi methods. It is concluded that this technique is a reliable alternative to Golgi methods for the study of many hypothalamic regions.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Dye transfer through gap junctions between neuroendocrine cells of rat hypothalamus.

Most magnocellular neurosecretory cells that terminate in the posterior pituitary secrete either vasopressin, oxytocin, or enkephalin. Intracellular injection of the fluorescent dye Lucifer Yellow into single magnocellular neurons in slices of rat hypothalamus resulted in dye transfer between these cells. Freeze-fracture replicas of these cells occasionally revealed gap junctions, which presumably contain channels that mediate the dye coupling. These two independent techniques strongly suggest that some mammalian neuropeptidergic cells are electrotonically coupled, providing a possible means for recruitment and synchronization of their electrical activity.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Intracellular recordings from the paraventricular nucleus in slices of rat hypothalamus.

1. The electrical activity of thirty-five neurones in the lateral area of the paraventricular nucleus (p.v.n.) was recorded intracellularly in vitro from slices of rat hypothalamus. 2. Spontaneously occurring action potentials were observed in twenty-four of the neurones. The temporal pattern of action potentials was generally slow and irregular; occasionally some cells fired bursts of action potentials. 3. Depolarizations with a fast rising phase and slow decay occurred spontaneously in most cells. These depolarizations exhibited a wide range of amplitudes in each cell (up to 33 mV), showed temporal summation, and could serve as pre-potentials for spontaneously occurring action potentials. Presumably, these depolarizations were excitatory post-synaptic potentials (e.p.s.p.s.). 4. Depolarizing current injection could evoke action potentials. Extracellular stimuli dorsolateral to the fornix column occasionally elicited action potentials which had a short and invariant latency and which could respond to stimulation rates of 100 Hz. In some cases, extracellular stimuli in the same area evoked depolarizations which had long and variable latency and were similar to those occurring spontaneously. These two types of responses probably represent antidromic and orthodromic activation respectively. 5. Intracellular injections of horseradish peroxidase suggest that these recordings were obtained primarily, but not exclusively, from magnocellular neuroendocrine cells. This is consistent with previous anatomical studies on the location of magnocellular elements in p.v.n.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1977

Ultrastructural changes in rat hypothalamic neurosecretory cells and their associated glia during minimal dehydration and rehydration.

A quantitative ultrastructural study was performed to determine the changes in the neurosecretory neurons of the supraoptic (SON) and circularis (NC) nuclei following 4-24 h of water deprivation (WD) and subsequent rehydration (12 and 24 h). In both nuclei, the amount of direct soma-somatic contact increased throughout WD, apparently by retraction of fine glial processes from between the cells. Rehydration reversed these changes. The number of smaller (less than 1600 A) neurosecretory granules (NSG's) decreased in both nuclei at 4 h of WD but returned to control levels by 24 h of WD and remained so during rehydration. Larger (less than 1600 A) NSG's decreased in number at 4 h of WD in SON and then returned to control levels by 24 h of WD and remained the same throughout rehydration. In NC, these NSG's did not change in number with WD, but significantly increased between 12 and 24 h of rehydration. No cells with dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum were seen in NC during this study. In SON, however, the percentage of such cells increased at 4 and 12 h of dehydration only to decrease to control levels at 24 h of dehydration and throughout rehydration. Lysosomes decreased at 4 h of dehydration in SON and returned to control levels thereafter. In NC, lysosomes tended to decrease with dehydration and increase with rehydration. These findings indicate that detectable morphological changes take place in the course of alterations in hydration state that are well within the physiological range.

Animals↗