RUI: Thyroid Hormone Physiology in Adult Rat Brain

The actions of thyroid hormones in brain were believed to be limited to effects on gene expression during the early developmental period, but new evidence has shown that thyroid hormones can influence the adult brain. The researchers at the Camden campus of Rutgers University have found specific effects of thyroid hormones in adult rat brain on several biochemical mechanisms other than gene expression. These and other data suggest a novel type of signaling function of thyroid hormones in the mature CNS. The key features defining a chemical signal in CNS include (a) a physiologically relevant variation in levels of the substance at the brain site of action and (b) the specific regulation of a cellular response leading to (c) functionally significant alteration(s) in brain activity. Since potential cellular responses have been identified earlier, current studies will relate temporal patterns of extracellular thyroid hormone concentration and metabolism in brain to circadian and sleep-related variables. Further studies will examine the effects of microinjection of thyroid hormones to sleep-related brain structures on electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of sleep. The results from these studies will therefore give insight into the physiological relevance of previously-demonstrated effects of thyroid hormones in adult mammalian brain, particularly with regard to regulation of sleep. The project will increase research opportunities for numerous undergraduates and masters students to ?learn by doing? in an interdisciplinary collaboration between Rutgers-Camden laboratories with strong track records in this area.