Regional and intercellular mechanism of oscillator synchrony in the mammalian circadian center.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We have investigated what systems maintain the synchrony in the SCN. We performed a microarray study to investigate the genes intrinsically expressed in dorsal and ventral region of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and found that Vip gene and Vpac2 genes were specifically expressed in the DMSCN and VLSCN, respectively. This suggests that the synchrony among SCN oscillators depends on the VIP/VPAC2 receptor system. Then, we artificially disrupted the intercellular coupling among oscillating neurons in the SCN. The analysis divided the SCN into two regions: a medial region with periods shorter than 24 h (short period region, SPR) and another lateral region with periods longer than 24 h (long period region, LPR). Further, a mathematical model of the SCN based on the results faithfully reproduced the kinetics of the oscillators in the SCN. The findings suggest that the regional period difference in the SCN generates the phase