Neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus that project to the rostral ventrolateral medulla are not activated by hypotension

Abstract

The retrogradely-transported tracer, rhodamine-tagged microspheres was injected into the pressor region of the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) to enable detection of paraventricular neurons in the hypothalamus that project to the RVLM. The protein, Fos, was detected immunohistochemically and used to highlight neurons that were activated by hypotension (−16±5 mmHg) induced by diazoxide (30 mg/kg s.c.). Compared to controls, Fos production was increased by three-fold in the parvocellular paraventricular nucleus but there was no significant increase in the number of retrogradely-labelled cells that expressed Fos. The results suggest paraventricular nucleus (PVN) neurons projecting to the RVLM are not activated by hypotension.