Subdiaphragmatic vagotomy blocks the induction of interleukin-1[beta] mrna
in the brain of mice in response to peripherally administered
lipopolysaccharide.
Lay[acute]e, Sophie, Rose-Marie Bluth[acute]e, Stephen Kent, Chantal Combe,
Chantal M[acute]edina,
Patricia Parnet, Keith Kelley, and Robert Dantzer.
INRA-INSERM U394, Rue Camille Saint-Sa[diaeresis]ens, 33077 Bordeaux Cedex,
France, Laboratory of Immunophysiology, Department of Animal Sciences,
University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
APStracts 2:0007R, 1995.
To test the possibility that the vagus nerve is involved in the communication
between the immune system and the brain, sham operated and vagotomized mice
were injected with physiological saline or lipopolysaccharide (400 [mu]g kg-1,
ip). Vagotomy attenuated LPS-induced depression of general activity measured
2 hours after treatment but did not alter the increase in plasma levels of
IL-1[beta] in response to LPS. In addition, vagotomy abrogated the LPS-induced
increase in the levels of transcripts for IL-1[beta], as determined by semi
-quantitative RT-PCR, in the hypothalamus and hippocampus, but not in the
pituitary of vagotomized mice. This relationship between the effects of
vagotomy on the behavioral effects of LPS and the LPS-induced brain
expression of IL-1[beta] mRNA indicates that vagal afferent fibers play a
prominent role in the pathways of communication between the immune system and
the brain.
Received 10 August 1994; accepted in final form 11 January 1995.
APS Manuscript Number R0440-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative Comp.
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 25 February 1995.