This document only includes an excerpt of the corresponding thesis or dissertation. To request a digital scan of the full text, please contact the Ruth Lilly Medical Library's Interlibrary Loan Department (rlmlill@iu.edu).

This document only includes an excerpt of the corresponding thesis or dissertation. To request a digital scan of the full text, please contact the Ruth Lilly Medical Library's Interlibrary Loan Department (rlmlill@iu.edu).

This document only includes an excerpt of the corresponding thesis or dissertation. To request a digital scan of the full text, please contact the Ruth Lilly Medical Library's Interlibrary Loan Department (rlmlill@iu.edu).

No description available.

The central nervous system controls many physiological processes including energy metabolism, immune response, reproduction, and development. In turn, hormones synthesized in and secreted by peripheral organs can be transported across the blood-brain barrier to modulate the development of the brain, the formation of new neurons, neural activity, behavior, and the secretion of brain-derived hormones. The central control of bone mass, mediated by the adipocyte-derived hormone leptin, has raised questions of whether the skeleton may signal back to the brain. In recent years, the Karsenty laboratory has uncovered the endocrine role of the bone-derived hormone osteocalcin. Through the use of a vast array of genetic tools, the Karsenty lab has discovered that osteocalcin is a potent regulator of glucose homeostasis, adaptation to exercise, energy metabolism, and male fertility. The multifunctional role of osteocalcin led us to hypothesize that it may act as a molecular means of communication between the skeleton and the brain. We asked whether osteocalcin could regulate brain development during embryogenesis and behavioral functions in adulthood. In addressing these questions, we observed that bone-derived osteocalcin crosses the blood-brain barrier, accumulates in discrete parts of the brain including the hippocampus, and binds to several neuronal populations to favor the synthesis of monoamine neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine), and to impede the synthesis of the inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA. Osteocalcin-/- mice have increased anxiety and depression and impaired learning and memory when compared to WT littermates. We also uncovered that the absence of maternal osteocalcin during embryogenesis hinders brain development and causes defects in spatial learning and memory in the adult offspring. Upon characterizing the necessity of osteocalcin for brain development and cognitive function, we investigated whether bone health is a determinant of cognition, and whether osteocalcin may be sufficient to reverse age-related cognitive decline. In addressing the first question, we found that impairment in either bone formation or bone resorption negatively impacts both anxiety and memory. In addressing the second question, we found that osteocalcin is also necessary for the beneficial effect of young blood on cognitive functions. Finally, we observed reduced anxiety and improved memory in aged mice receiving osteocalcin peripherally. This action appears to require an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in the hippocampus. Against the backdrop of our progressively aging population, it is important for future studies to determine whether osteocalcin may act therapeutically in humans to treat age-related cognitive decline. Additionally, to identify potential drug targets, it is important to fully characterize the molecular mechanism by which osteocalcin acts on neurons.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Flinders University, Dept. of Human Physiology, Centre for Neuroscience. / Typescript bound. Includes bibliographical references: (leaves 187-191) Also available electronically via the World Wide Web.

The effects of a range of neuronal excitants were examined on the firing of central neurones of the cerebral cortex, ventrobasal thalamus, dentate gyrus and dorsal and ventral horns of the spinal cords of urethane anaesthetized rats. These responses were pharmacologically characterized on the basis of their susceptibilities to a number of antagonists and from these results, inferences were made concerning probable receptor mechanisms employed by the agonists. Throughout these experiments the technique of iontophoresis was found to be an ideal one for evaluating the effects of agonists and antagonists on single neurones. Neurones in the cortex, thalamus and Renshaw cells of the spinal cord were readily excited by acetylcholine. These responses were elicited also by both nicotinic and muscarinic cholinomimetics. Excitations produced by acetylcholine and acetyl-β-methylcholine were antagonized by atropine and those of acetylcholine and nicotinic agonists were blocked by nicotinic antagonists. The results may be interpreted as revealing a difference between excitatory cholinergic receptors in the rat and in the cat; the nature of these receptors is discussed. to The excitatory responses of ventrobasal thalamic neurones iontophoretically applied amino acids related to glutamate and aspartate could be blocked both by glutamate diethylester and α-aminoadipate. These two antagonists were found to possess different mechanisms of action however, as the ranking orders of susceptibility of the agonists differed for each antagonist. An analysis of these orders led to the proposal that more than one and possibly as many as three different receptors for the excitatory amino acids exist on central neurones. A number of additional compounds were tested for an evaluation of their antagonistic properties against the amino acid induced responses, and these results are discussed in light of possible steric requirements of the receptors. Granule cells of the dentate gyrus were excited by the amino acids and by their synaptic responses to stimulation of perforant path and commissural inputs. A differential effectiveness of glutamate diethylester and α-aminoadipate was suggestive that two distinct excitatory amino acid receptors, both of which appear to be of synaptic significance, coexist on the same neurones. The effects of octopamine were compared with those of catecholamines on neurones of the cortex and dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Both excitation and depression of neuronal firing was observed with octopamine and these responses appeared not to be correlated with those effected by the catecholamines. A further separation of the actions of octopamine and the catecholamines was evident when the amine induced responses were compared in the presence of the antagonists, propranolol and α-flupenthixol. These blocking compounds were effective in attenuating the effects of the catecholamines, but had no effect upon the octopamine induced changes in firing rate. The results suggest that receptors sensitive to octopamine and which appear to be pharmacologically distinct from those previously categorized as catecholamine receptors, may exist on central neurones of the rat. On the basis of the present findings, it was evident that when the technique of iontophoresis is combined with standard neurophysiological methods of identifying central neurones by their responses to synaptic stimulation, valuable information can be obtained concerning the nature of the synaptic transmitters employed by these cells. / Medicine, Faculty of / Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Department of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Anatomy / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

The progressive loss of developmental potential is a hallmark of all differentiating cells in multicellular organisms. At the chromatin level, this restriction in cell-fate plasticity is established through the silencing of active and poised lineage-specific genes that are incompatible with the terminal fate of the maturing cell type. The effective and stable inhibition of gene expression relies on the coordinated action of transcriptional repressors. These repressors are often transiently expressed only at the time of cell-fate specification and direct lineage decisions by suppressing alternative developmental programs. However, compared to the numerous studies examining the mechanisms by which cell-type specific transcriptional activators program cellular identity, little is currently known regarding how transient repressors execute permanent silencing of gene regulatory networks. To address this question, I have examined the mechanisms through which the transiently expressed transcription factor (TF) Nkx2.2 represses the acquisition of motor neuron (MN) identity in V3 neuronal progenitors. While it is well-established that Nkx2.2 functions as a transcriptional repressor through its interactions with the Groucho (Grg) family of co-repressors, how these interactions manifest in gene silencing has remained unknown. Moreover, the effects of Nkx2.2 occupancy on chromatin modifications have not been determined. In this dissertation, I demonstrate that surprisingly, Nkx2.2 decommissions enhancers of the MN developmental program not through the recruitment of additional co-repressor proteins but rather through the eviction of co-activator complexes. While this displacement is dependent upon an intact Grg-interacting domain, Nkx2.2 binding does not increase Grg enrichment. In addition, extensive profiling of Nkx2.2 genome-wide binding events in neural precursors unexpectedly revealed that Nkx2.2 occupies not only enhancers of MN progenitor genes acutely repressed by Nkx2.2 but also enhancers of genes expressed exclusively in postmitotic MNs, long after Nkx2.2 expression has been down- regulated. In vivo lineage tracing experiments and in vitro genomic analyses demonstrated that Nkx2.2 also functions in a repressive capacity at these poised regulatory regions. Here, Nkx2.2 binding prevents the activation of postmitotic genetic networks through a preferential enlistment of histone deacetylase complex 2 (HDAC2) proteins. However, this binding is not accompanied by the deposition of repressive chromatin modifications, and removal of Nkx2.2 in differentiating V3 neurons leads to the ectopic expression of the postmitotic MN TFs Isl1 and Hb9. Collectively, these studies indicate that transiently expressed repressors may establish gene suppression by counteracting the activities of transcriptional activators, rather than by directly establishing repressive chromatin signatures. As transcriptional reprogramming of differentiated cell linages often fails to adequately silence the expression programs of the starting population, these results may help to inform new methodologies for instructing cell conversions.