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Critical Reviews™ in Neurobiology

ISSN for PRINT: 0892-0915

Institutional price:	$649.00
Issues per year:	4

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2004, Volume16

194 pages

DOI: 10.1615/CritRevNeurobiol.v16.i12

Issue price - $252.00

Neuroanatomical and Pharmacological Evidence for a Functional Interaction Between GABAergic and NPY-Y₁ Transmission in the Amygdala of Y₁R/LacZ Transgenic Mice

Carola Eva
Dipartimento di Anatomia, Farmacologia e Medicina Legale, Sezione di Farmacologia, Universita di Torino, Torino, Italy

Paolo Mele
Dipartimento di Anatomia, Farmacologia e Medicina Legale, Sezione di Farmacologia, Universita di Torino, Torino, Italy

Alessandra Oberto
Dipartimento di Anatomia, Farmacologia e Medicina Legale, Sezione di Farmacologia, Universita di Torino, Torino, Italy

Gian Carlo Panzica
Dipartimento di Anatomia, Farmacologia e Medicina Legale, Sezione di Anatomia, Universita di Torino, Torino, Italy

Maria Giuseppina Pisu
Dipartimento di Biologia Sperimentale, Sezione di Neuroscienze, Universita di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Mariangela Serra
Dipartimento di Biologia Sperimentale, Sezione di Neuroscienze, Universita di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

ABSTRACT

Several lines of evidence indicate that GABA and neuropeptide Y (NPY) are functionally coupled and may interact in the regulation of fear- and anxiety-induced behavior. Neuroanatomical studies demonstrated that GABA and NPY coexist in neurons of the amygdaloid complex and that NPY may directly modulate the activity of GABAergic neurons by stimulating Y₁ receptors. By using a transgenic mouse model harboring a construct comprising the murine Y₁ receptor gene promoter fused to a lacZ reporter gene (Y₁R/LacZ mice), we showed that long-term treatment with positive (diazepam or abecarnil) or negative (FG7142) modulators of GABA_A receptor function induced a marked increase or decrease, respectively, in Y₁ receptor gene expression in the amygdala. Furthermore, we demonstrated that a sustained increase in the brain concentrations of neuroactive steroids, induced by pharmacological treatment or by physiological conditions such as pregnancy, increases Y₁ receptor gene expression in the amygdala of Y₁R/LacZ transgenic mice, an effect similar to that induced by diazepam or abecarnil. These data provide evidence of a functional interaction between GABAergic and NPY-Y₁ mediated transmission and suggest that neuroactive steroids may play an important role in the regulation of the NPY transmission. Finally, our data support a role of Y₁ receptors in the behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to stress that, however, appears to be independent on the activation of the GABAergic system.