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| Author(s): |
Andre Schwambach Vieira
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia |
| Defense date: | 2007-08-31 |
| Examining board members: |
Francesco Langone;
Roger Frigério Castilho;
Carlos Amílcar Parada
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| Advisor: | Francesco Langone; Licio Augusto Velloso |
| Abstract | |
The Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor (CNTF) is a neurocitokine with multiple biological activities, being notable its ability to protect lesioned motoneurons. However, administration of CNTF leads to reduction of body mass, while administration of CNTF fusioned with a Protein Transduction Domain (PTD), named TAT-CNTF, protects lesioned spinal motoneurons with no effects on body weight. In the present work, we investigated whether intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) administration of TAT-CNTF would produce CNTF known catabolic effects. Male Wistar rats with a canula chronically implanted in the lateral ventricle were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: TAT-CNTF (2,5µg/8µl), CNTF (2,5µg/8µl), Leptin (LEP) (5µg/8µl) and PBS, that received an i.c.v. infusion every 12h for 4 days. TAT-CNTF treated group had a reduced weight loss when compared with CNTF and LEP groups. TAT-CNTF i.c.v. infusions did not reduce the weights of retroperitoneal (RP) and epididimal (EP) white adipose tissue, as well as interescapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) while CNTF i.c.v. administration reduced the weight of all these tissues. CNTF and LEP groups showed an increase of DNA fragmentation in RP and EP. On the other hand, TAT-CNTF group had no increase in DNA fragmentation in RP, EP and GM. A DNA ladder pattern and TUNEL positive cells could only be detected in adipose tissues from CNTF and LEP groups. CNTF and LEP treated groups had an increase in the expression of UCP1 in BAT, while TAT-CNTF treatment had no effects on UCP1 expression. An acute i.c.v. administration demonstrated that after 20 minutes TAT-CNTF induced less intense STAT3 phosphorilation in the hypothalamus when compared with CNTF acute infusions. In conclusion these data suggest that TAT-CNTF has a different action on hypothalamic areas involved in the control of food intake and energy metabolism (AU) | |