Temporal-spatial pattern of c-fos expression in the rat brain in response to indispensable amino acid deficiency. I. The initial recognition phase.

Abstract

Rats reduce their food intake after ingestion of a small amount of an amino acid imbalanced (AA-IMB) diet that induces a pronounced amino acid deficiency. Two hours after ingesting a threonine-IMB diet, just when food intake is depressed significantly, the concentration of threonine is decreased in some but not all brain areas. Neural recognition of this decrease in the limiting amino acid is thought to be the first step in the anorectic responses to AA-IMB diets. To identify the regions of the brain that may be activated upon recognition of an AA-IMB diet, we examined the temporal-spatial distribution of Fos immunoreactive neurons at intervals after introduction of either threonine-IMB or control diets. We found that Fos immunoreactivity in the anterior piriform cortex and immediately surrounding areas, along with the infralimbic cortex, was increased selectively early (by 2 h) after introduction of the AA-IMB diet, and remained elevated through 3 h. The anterior piriform cortex is believed to function in neural recognition of amino acid deficiency. Fos immunoreactivity in the AA-IMB group increased over the control diet groups somewhat later in the dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus. We hypothesize that these areas in the rostral forebrain may serve as neural relays in the early phases of the anorectic responses that occur upon recognition of amino acid deficiency.