Study of the expression of cocaine- and amphetamine- regulated transcript (CART) in the rat forebrain during post-natal development.

Author(s)

Bruno de Crudis Rodrigues

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB/SDI)
• Defense date: 2008-11-25

Examining board members

Carol Fuzeti Elias; Raquel Simoni Pires; Andréa da Silva Torrão

• Advisor: Carol Fuzeti Elias

Abstract

Cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) is found widespread in the rodent nervous system. It has been involved in many different functions including feeding and sexual behaviors, learning and memory, stress responses, sensory processing and neuronal plasticity. Recent studies suggest that CART may be also implicated in neural development. Therefore, in the present study we investigated CART expression in the forebrain of rats in different stages of development. Using in situ hybridization, we compared CART expression in the forebrain of 6, 26 and 66 days old Sprague-Dawley rats. In general, we found a higher expression of CART in 6 days old animals comparing to other groups. Specifically, we found increased CART expression in the somatosensory and piriforme cortex, induzium griseum, dentate gyrus, nucleus accumbens, and ventral prepamammillary nucleus. Interestingly, we found CART expression in the ventral posteromedial and ventral posterolateral thalamic nuclei only in 6-days old animals. In other regions including the CA1 and the arcuate nucleus, CART expression did not change. By using immunohistochemistry we found that the CART peptide is produced in the areas where we found the mRNA, in 6 days old animals. Our findings suggest that the CART participate in neural development in various forebrain nuclei. (AU)