Arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase gene expression in retina and pineal gland of rats under various photoperiods
| Autor: | Rainer Spessert, Lutz Vollrath, Lydia Engel |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2004 |
| Předmět: |
endocrine system
medicine.medical_specialty Light Arylamine N-Acetyltransferase Photoperiod Circadian clock Biophysics Gene Expression Biology Pineal Gland Biochemistry Retina Rats Sprague-Dawley Pineal gland Internal medicine Gene expression medicine Animals RNA Messenger Circadian rhythm Molecular Biology photoperiodism Suprachiasmatic nucleus Cell Biology Darkness Circadian Rhythm Rats Endocrinology medicine.anatomical_structure Arylalkylamine sense organs |
| Zdroj: | Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 318:983-986 |
| ISSN: | 0006-291X |
| Popis: | The present study examines how the circadian oscillators in the retina and the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) respond to changes in photoperiod. ArylalkylamineN-acetyltransferase (aa-nat) gene expression studied by quantitative RT-PCR revealed that in adult Sprague–Dawley rats kept under different light–dark (LD) cycles for two weeks the temporal pattern of AA-NAT mRNA expression was identical in retina and pineal gland. In both tissues, the time span between the onset of darkness and the nocturnal rise in AA-NAT mRNA expression was 3 h under LD 20:4, 6 h under LD 12:12, and 15 h under LD 4:20. As aa-nat expression in the pineal gland is regulated by the circadian oscillator in SCN, the results suggest that the photoperiodic differences accompanying the seasons of the year are imprinted in more than one oscillator and that this may accentuate the important message regarding ‘time of year.’ |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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