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Simultaneous Detection of c-Fos Activation from Mesolimbic and Mesocortical Dopamine Reward Sites Following Naive Sugar and Fat Ingestion in Rats
Published on: August 24, 2016
A proteomics approach to identify long-term molecular changes in rat medial prefrontal cortex resulting from sucrose
Michel C Van den Oever1, Sabine Spijker, Ka Wan Li
1Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics & Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the processing and retrieval of reward-related information. Here, we investigated long-lasting changes in protein composition of the mPFC in rats with a history of sucrose self-administration. Protein levels were analyzed using 2-D PAGE and MALDI-TOF sequencing. From approximately 1500 spots, 28 regulated proteins were unambiguously identified and were involved in cytoskeleton organization, energy metabolism, oxidative stress, neurotransmission, and neuronal outgrowth and differentiation. For several proteins, this change was also found as a long-lasting alteration in gene expression. We show that self-administration of sucrose produces long-lasting molecular neuroadaptations in the mPFC that may be involved in reward-related information processing.
