Ca2+ induced hypothermia in a hibernator (Citellus beechyi)

Calcium-Binding Proteins in the Nervous System during Hibernation: Neuroprotective Strategies in Hypometabolic Conditions?

Calcium-binding proteins (CBPs) can influence and react to Ca2+ transients and modulate the activity of proteins involved in both maintaining homeostatic conditions and protecting cells in harsh environmental conditions. Hibernation is a strategy that evolved in vertebrate and invertebrate species to survive in cold environments; it relies on molecular, cellular, and behavioral adaptations guided by the neuroendocrine system that together ensure unmatched tolerance to hypothermia, hypometabolism, and hypoxia. Therefore, hibernation is a useful model to study molecular neuroprotective adaptations to extreme conditions, and can reveal useful applications to human pathological conditions. In this review, we describe the known changes in Ca2+-signaling and the detection and activity of CBPs in the nervous system of vertebrate and invertebrate models during hibernation, focusing on cytosolic Ca2+ buffers and calmodulin. Then, we discuss these findings in the context of the neuroprotective and neural plasticity mechanisms in the central nervous system: in particular, those associated with cytoskeletal proteins. Finally, we compare the expression of CBPs in the hibernating nervous system with two different conditions of neurodegeneration, i.e., platinum-induced neurotoxicity and Alzheimer's disease, to highlight the similarities and differences and demonstrate the potential of hibernation to shed light into part of the molecular mechanisms behind neurodegenerative diseases.

High dietary sodium chloride and body temperature in the domestic fowl and the glaucous-winged gull

Arad and Skadhauge (1986) correlated plasma sodium to calcium ratio and body temperature in domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus) during increased dietary sodium chloride intake which increased plasma sodium concentration. During acclimation to high dietary NaCl, body temperature should increase in proportion to the increase in plasma sodium concentration, and body temperature should increase less in gulls than in chickens because salt gland secretion of NaCl by gulls should prevent elevation of plasma sodium concentration. Plasma osmolality, plasma sodium concentration, plasma concentrations of total calcium and ionized calcium, and body temperature and panting threshold were measured in domestic roosters and Glaucous-winged gulls before and after exposure to high NaCl diets. Gull body temperature (40.4 +/- 0.2 degrees C) increased significantly (P < 0.05) during salt acclimation. Rooster body temperature (41.0 +/- 0.2 degrees C) did not increase significantly. Plasma sodium concentration increased in gulls (5.4 +/- 0.5%, P < 0.01) and was correlated with body temperature (r = 0.497, P < 0.05); the 3.8 +/- 1.0% increase in plasma sodium concentration in roosters (P < 0.01) was not, suggesting that change in body temperature might be a response to the magnitude of increase in plasma sodium concentration. Plasma ionized calcium concentration increased by 12.9 +/- 4.6% (P < 0.01) in gulls and by 5.3 +/- 1.0% (P < 0.01) in roosters. Plasma sodium concentration was correlated with calcium ion concentration in both gulls (r = 0.635, P < 0.05) and roosters (r = 0.664, P < 0.05). In neither species were ratios of sodium to total calcium plasma concentration or sodium to ionized calcium concentration altered or related to body temperature.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Changes in body temperature after administration of antipyretics, LSD, delta 9-THC, CNS depressants and stimulants, hormones, inorganic ions, gases, 2,4-DNP and miscellaneous agents

This survey concludes a series of complications of data from the literature, primarily published since 1965, on thermoregulatory effects of antipyretics in afebrile as well as in febrile subjects, LSD and other hallucinogens, cannabinoids, general CNS depressants, CNS stimulants including xanthines, hormones, inorganic ions, gases and fumes, 2,4-dinitrophenol and miscellaneous agents including capsaicin, cardiac glycosides, chemotherapeutic agents, cinchona alkaloids, cyclic nucleotides, cycloheximide, 2-deoxy-D-glucose, dimethylsulfoxide, insecticides, local anesthetics, poly I:poly C, spermidine and spermine, sugars, toxins and transport inhibitors. The information listed includes the species used, route of administration and dose of drug, the environmental temperature at which the experiments were performed, the number of tests, the direction and magnitude of body temperature change and remarks on the presence of special conditions such as age or lesions, or on the influence of other drugs, such as antagonists, on the response to the primary agents.

Alterations in body temperature elicited by intrahypothalamic administration of tetrodotoxin, ouabain and A23187 ionophore in the conscious cat

Ouabain, tetrodotoxin, and calcium selective ionophore (A23187) were administered bilaterally into the hypothalamus of the unrestrained, fully conscious cat, while body temperature and other indicators of thermoregulatory responses were monitored continuously. Posterior hypothalamic microinjection of 2.0 to 10.0 ng or tissue perfusion with 1.1 X 10(-7) to 1.1 X 10(-8) M ouabain elicited dose dependent increases in body temperature accompanied by pinnae vasoconstriction, shivering and postural changes consistent with heat conservation. Tetrodotoxin, microinjected in doses of 0.5 and 5.0 ng or tissue perfusions with 7.8 X 10(-9) to 7.8 X 10(-7) M in the posterior hypothalamus elicited dose dependent falls in body temperature. However, tetrodotoxin microinjected into the anterior hypothalamic region elicited only increases in temperature. The calcium selective ionophore, A23187, at least at the concentrations used in this study, did not appear to produce any consistent effects on thermoregulation. These data support the hypothesis that the ionic milieu of the posterior hypothalamic region is essential in the maintenance of body temperature. Further, they suggest that increasing the [Ca++]/[Na+] acts in a manner similar to a depression in the firing frequency of a distinct population of cells, which may in turn determine in some way the "set-point" for body temperature. There is no evidence to support the concept that increasing the [Ca++]/[Na+] causes an increased release of the synaptic contents of the region.

Brain calcium in the rabbit: site of action for the alteration of body temperature

Body temperature was recorded in the unanesthetized rabbit during push-pull perfusion of regions of the hypothalamus. Both the anterior and posterior hypothalamus were perfused with physiological solutions containing Ca++ in a concentration 2.0 or 5.0 times that of extracellular fluid. The animals were placed in an ambient temperature of 4.0 +/- 2.0degrees C for at least 1 hr before the perfusion and all experiments were carried out at this temperature. In the posterior hypothalamic area Ca++ produced a sharp fall in body temperature but did not cause body temperature to alter when it was perfused through the anterior hypothalamic area. These results indicate that the rabbit is similar to the cat and monkey since the effect of Ca++ on body temperature is localized to the posterior hypothalamic region.

Hypothalamic Na+ and Ca++ ions and temperature set-point: new mechanisms of action of a central or peripheral thermal challenge and intrahypothalamic 5-HT, NE, PGEi and pyrogen

The effects of changes in ambient and central temperature, amines, PGEu and pyrogen were investigated with respect to the mechanism of Na+-Ca++ ratio in the posterior hypothalamus of the unrestrained cat. Guide tubes were implanted bilaterally above the posterior hypothalamic area of 23 cats so as to accommodate push-pull cannulae. After a Na+ or Ca++ sensitive site was identified by perfusion at 50 mul/min of an artificial CSF containing 10.4 mM excess Ca++ ions or 13.6 mM excess Na+ ions, several types of experiments were undertaken with the results summarized as follows: if the cat was exposed to a cold or warm environmental temperature as the posterior hypothalamus was perfused with excess cation, the typical hypothermia was produced by Ca++ and hyperthermia by Na+ ions. However, if the cat was exposed to peripheral cooling or warming 30 min prior to the perfusion, the fall or rise produced by Ca++ or Na+ was attenuated or prevented. In other experiments, 1.0 muCi 45Ca++ was injected in the ion sensitive site in the posterior hypothalamus to label stores of the cation. Raising of ambient temperature caused a retention of 45Ca++ in this hypothalmic area, whereas a cold environmental temperature enhanced the efflux of 45Ca++ at the same perfusion site. The magnitude of change in 45Ca++ efflux depended upon the intensity of the thermal challenge. Similarly, warming of the anterior hypothalmic, preoptic area by means of implanted thermodes caused an immediate diminution in 45Ca++ efflux in the posterior hypothalamus, whereas cooling of this anterior region augmented the extrusion of 45Ca++ ions from the posterior area. When substances which produce a temperature change were applied to the same thermosensitive zone, the direction of shift in 45Ca++ flux in the posterior area corresponded to the signal for heat production or heat loss. That is, the microinjection of 5-HT, PGE1 or Salmonella typhosa into the anterior hypothalamus enhanced the efflux of 45Ca++ in the posterior hypothalamus as hyperthermia developed, whereas a similar microinjection of norepinephrine reduced the 45Ca++ output from the same sites. Finally, locally anesthetizing the cells of the anterior hypothalamus by the nerve blocker, procaine, prevented the cold and heat-induced 45Ca++ eflux and retention, respectively. These results suggest that if the Na+-Ca++ ratio in the posterior hypothalamus establishes and maintains the set-point for body temperature of 37 degrees -38 degrees C, the mechanism of lability of Ca++ through changes in binding characteristics, transport, or metabolism of the cation serves two purposes: (1) the active defense of the set-point temperature through gradations in ion shifts; and (2) the upward or downward change in set-point value, pathological or normal, triggered by virtue of impulses relayed from the anterior hypothalamus.