| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
Gomes, Silvio Pires
[1]
;
Nyengaard, Jens Randel
[2, 3]
;
Misawa, Rubia
[4]
;
Girotti, Priscila Azevedo
[4]
;
Castelucci, Patricia
[4]
;
Javier Blazquez, Francisco Hernandez
;
de Melo, Mariana Pereira
[5]
;
Coppi Ribeiro, Antonio Augusto
[1]
Total Authors: 8
|
| Affiliation: | [1] Univ Sao Paulo, LSSCA, Dept Surg, Coll Vet Med, BR-05508270 Sao Paulo - Brazil
[2] Univ Aarhus, Stereol & Electron Microscopy Res Lab, Aarhus - Denmark
[3] Univ Aarhus, MIND Ctr, Aarhus - Denmark
[4] Univ Sao Paulo, Lab Metab Dysfunct, Dept Anat, Inst Biomed Sci, BR-05508270 Sao Paulo - Brazil
[5] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Stat, Inst Math & Stat, BR-05508270 Sao Paulo - Brazil
Total Affiliations: 5
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | Journal of Neuroscience Research; v. 87, n. 16, p. 3568-3575, Dec. 2009. |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Morphology |
| Web of Science Citations: | 7 |
| Abstract | |
Protein deficiency is one of the biggest public health problems in the world, accounting for about 30-40% of hospital admissions in developing countries. Nutritional deficiencies lead to alterations in the peripheral nervous system and in the digestive system. Most studies have focused on the effects of protein-deficient diets on the enteric neurons, but not on sympathetic ganglia, which supply extrinsic sympathetic input to the digestive system. Hence, in this study, we investigated whether a protein-restricted diet would affect the quantitative structure of rat coeliac ganglion neurons. Five male Wistar rats (undernourished group) were given a preand postnatal hypoproteinic diet receiving 5% casein, whereas the nourished group (n 5 5) was fed with 20% casein (normoproteinic diet). Blood tests were carried out on the animals, e.g., glucose, leptin, and triglyceride plasma concentrations. The main structural findings in this study were that a protein-deficient diet (5% casein) caused coeliac ganglion (78%) and coeliac ganglion neurons (24%) to atrophy and led to neuron loss (63%). Therefore, the fall in the total number of coeliac ganglion neurons in protein-restricted rats contrasts strongly with no neuron losses previously described for the enteric neurons of animals subjected to similar protein-restriction diets. Discrepancies between our figures and the data for enteric neurons (using very similar protein-restriction protocols) may be attributable to the counting method used. In light of this, further systematic investigations comparing 2-D and 3-D quantitative methods are warranted to provide even more advanced data on the effects that a protein-deficient diet may exert on sympathetic neurons. (AU) | |