本研究探討大白鼠離體腦下丘視前部感溫細胞對acetylcholine, norepine-phrine及5-hydroxytryptamine(5-HT)的電生理反應。此區的細胞可分為感熱、感冷及非感溫細胞。我們發現將acetylcholine當以多管微電極及微量電流注射法,直接置於下視丘前部感溫細胞,多為興奮性作用。雖然norepinephrine對多數的感冷細胞之作用與acetylcholine相似,其對感熱細胞則呈抑制作用。5-HT對感溫細胞之作用與norepinephrine相反。這些發現證明了在離體下,腦細胞仍具備副交感及單胺神經傳導。此外本結果對在無麻醉及神經導入訊號下,影響體溫的生理及藥理因素,提供了進一步的了解。
The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the electrophysiological properties of the thermosensitive neurons in the hypothalamic brain slice. Hypothalamus was dissected and was sliced from adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Extracellular neuronal activity was recorded from a single neuron of preoptic/anterior hypothalamic (POAH) area of diencephalon from the slice. Cells were classified into warm-sensitive, cold-sensitive, and thermally insensitive groups. We found that acetylcholine, applied locally through a multibarrel micropipette by iontophoresis, excited most of POAH neurons. On the other hand, NE inhibited most of warm-sensitive neurons and excited cold-sensitive neurons. Interestingly, the effects of 5-HT were opposed to that induced by NE. In conclusion, our data suggested the cholinergic and monoaminergic transmission were preserved in the in vitro environments.