Ghrelin Recruits Specific Subsets of Dopamine and GABA Neurons of Different Ventral Tegmental Area Sub-nuclei
- Cornejo, María Paula
- Barrile, Franco
- de Francesco, Pablo Nicolás
- Portiansky, Enrique Leo
- Reynaldo, Mirta Beatriz
- Perello, Mario
DOIAbstract
Ghrelin is a stomach-derived hormone that regulates rewarding behaviors and reinforcement by acting on the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The VTA is a complex midbrain structure mainly comprised of dopamine (DA) and gamma-aminobutiric acid (GABA) neurons that are distributed in several VTA sub-nuclei. Here, we investigated the neuroanatomical distribution and chemical phenotype of ghrelin-responsive neurons within the VTA. In wild-type mice, we found that: (1) ghrelin binding cells are present in most VTA sub-nuclei but not in its main target, the nucleus accumbens (Acb); (2) systemically injected ghrelin increases food intake but does neither affect locomotor activity nor the levels of the marker of neuronal activation c-Fos in the VTA sub-...
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