Study on Regulatory Mechanisms of Orexin Neuronal Activity that regulate Emotion and Stress Responses

我们利用人前食欲素启动子建立了转基因小鼠系，其中食欲素产生神经元仅表达绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)。我们从这些小鼠的下丘脑中制备了荧光神经元，并对它们进行了全细胞膜片钳分析。通过该系统，我们确定了影响增食欲素神经元活动的几个因素：CRF、Ghrelin、CCK和乙酰胆碱被激活，去甲肾上腺素和5-羟色胺抑制增食欲素神经元的活动。由于去甲肾上腺素和5-羟色胺等单胺在情绪调节中起作用，而CRF和CCK是应激反应的重要因素，这些结果表明增食欲素可能在情绪行为和应激反应的调节和出现中发挥重要作用。

We generated transgenic mouse lines, in which orexin-producing neurons exclusively express the green fluorescent protein (GFP), using human prepro-orexin promoter. We prepared fluorescing neurons from the hypothalamus of these mice, and subjected them to whole cell patch-clamp analysis. By this system, we identified several factors that have effects on orexin neuronal activity ; CRF, ghrelin, CCK, and actylcholine activated, while noradrenalin and serotonin inhibited the activity of orexin neuron. Because monoamines, such as noradrenalin and serotonin have a role in regulation of emotion, while CRF and CCK are important factors for the stress response, these results suggest a possibility that orexin has an important role in the regulation and emergence of the emotional behavior and stress response.