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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 586/10/2611    most recent jphysiol.2008.152686v2 jphysiol.2008.152686v1 Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Google Scholar Articles by Nakamura, K. Articles by Morrison, S. F. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nakamura, K. Articles by Morrison, S. F. Related Collections Integrative

¹ Neurological Sciences Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, OR, USA

We recently identified a somatosensory pathway that transmits temperature information from the skin to a median subregion of the preoptic area (POA), a thermoregulatory centre. Here, we investigated in vivo the local neuronal circuit in the rat POA that processes the thermosensory information and outputs thermoregulatory effector signals. Skin cooling-evoked increases in sympathetic thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue, in metabolism and in heart rate were reversed by inhibition of neurons in the median preoptic nucleus (MnPO). Glutamatergic stimulation or disinhibition of MnPO neurons evoked thermogenic, metabolic and cardiac responses that mimicked the cold-defensive responses to skin cooling and were reversed by antagonizing GABA_A receptors in the medial preoptic area (MPO), which is thought to contain neurons providing thermoregulatory output to effectors. These results suggest that GABA inhibition of output neurons in the MPO by MnPO neurons that are activated by cool sensory signals from the skin is a core thermoregulatory mechanism within the POA that is essential for the feedforward defence of body temperature against cold challenges in the environment.

(Received 15 February 2008; accepted after revision 1 April 2008; first published online 3 April 2008)
Corresponding author K. Nakamura: Neurological Sciences Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, 505 NW 185th Avenue, Beaverton, OR 97006, USA. Email: nakamura{at}ohsu.edu

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				S. F. Morrison, K. Nakamura, and C. J. Madden Central control of thermogenesis in mammals Exp Physiol, July 1, 2008; 93(7): 773 - 797. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]