Membrane potential dye imaging of ventromedial hypothalamus neurons from adult mice to study glucose sensing
JoVE. 2013-11-27; (81):
DOI: 10.3791/50861
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1. J Vis Exp. 2013 Nov 27;(81):50861. doi: 10.3791/50861.
Membrane potential dye imaging of ventromedial hypothalamus neurons from adult
mice to study glucose sensing.
Vazirani RP(1), Fioramonti X, Routh VH.
Author information:
(1)Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
Studies of neuronal activity are often performed using neurons from rodents less
than 2 months of age due to the technical difficulties associated with
increasing connective tissue and decreased neuronal viability that occur with
age. Here, we describe a methodology for the dissociation of healthy
hypothalamic neurons from adult-aged mice. The ability to study neurons from
adult-aged mice allows the use of disease models that manifest at a later age
and might be more developmentally accurate for certain studies. Fluorescence
imaging of dissociated neurons can be used to study the activity of a population
of neurons, as opposed to using electrophysiology to study a single neuron. This
is particularly useful when studying a heterogeneous neuronal population in
which the desired neuronal type is rare such as for hypothalamic glucose sensing
neurons. We utilized membrane potential dye imaging of adult ventromedial
hypothalamic neurons to study their responses to changes in extracellular
glucose. Glucose sensing neurons are believed to play a role in central
regulation of energy balance. The ability to study glucose sensing in adult
rodents is particularly useful since the predominance of diseases related to
dysfunctional energy balance (e.g. obesity) increase with age.
DOI: 10.3791/50861
PMCID: PMC3992114
PMID: 24326343 [Indexed for MEDLINE]