Fmr1 knockout mice show reduced anxiety and alterations in neurogenesis that are specific to the ventral dentate gyrus.

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by the selective loss of the expression of the Fmr1 gene. Key symptoms in FXS include intellectual impairment and abnormal anxiety-related behaviors. Fmr1 knockout (KO) mice exhibited reduced anxiety on two behavioral tests as well as a blunted corticosterone response to acute stress. Spatial learning and memory was not impaired when tested with both the classic Morris water and Plus-shaped mazes. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis has been associated with spatial learning and memory and emotions such as anxiety and depression. The process of neurogenesis appears abnormal in young adult Fmr1 KO mice, with significantly fewer bromodeoxyuridine-positive cells surviving for at least 4 weeks in the ventral subregion of the dentate gyrus (DG), a hippocampal subregion more closely associated with emotion than the dorsal DG. Within this smaller pool of surviving cells, we observed a concomitant increase in the proportion of surviving cells that acquire a neuronal phenotype. We did not observe a clear difference in cell proliferation using both endogenous and exogenous markers. This work indicates that loss of Fmr1 expression can alter anxiety-related behaviors in mice as well as produce region-specific alterations in hippocampal adult neurogenesis.

Adiponectin regulate growth hormone secretion via adiponectin receptor mediated Ca(2+) signalling in rat somatotrophs in vitro.

Obesity is associated with reduced levels of growth hormone (GH) and the disruption of pulsatile GH secretion. This results in relative GH deficiency. It is likely that a regulatory relationship between GH secretion and adipose tissue exists as the secretion of GH recovers to normal levels after a reduction in body weight. This report characterise the expression and interaction of adiponectin receptors 1 and 2 (AdipoR1 and AdipoR2) and adiponectin, respectively, in regulating the activity of GH secreting cells. Polymerase chain reaction analysis of the GH3 cell line, rat anterior pituitary gland and isolated somatotroph cells from transgenic GFP expressing mice confirmed the expression of both AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 in GH secretory cells. Because GH cells expressed both receptors, it is likely that the measured increase in GH secretion, observed in primary cultured rat pituitary cells after 30 min of incubation with full-length murine adiponectin, was mediated by a direct receptor regulated process. Adiponectin induced an increase in intracellular Ca(2+) through both the influx of extracellular Ca(2+) and the release of intracellular Ca(2+) stores resulting in the secretion of GH. Furthermore, results confirm that this increase in GH secretion depended mainly on an increase in Ca(2+) influx through L-type Ca(2+) channels. It is concluded that adiponectin directly regulates GH secretion from somatotrophs by binding to either adiponectin receptor, and that this is mediated via a similar process observed after the stimulation of GH secretion by GH-releasing hormone.