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Neurochemical characterization of the hypothalamus of the early fetal and newborn alpaca Vicugna pacos
Author(s) -
Montelli Stefano,
Graïc JeanMarie,
Ruiz Jaime Antonio,
Stelletta Calogero,
Peruffo Antonella
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the anatomical record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.678
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1932-8494
pISSN - 1932-8486
DOI - 10.1002/ar.24342
Subject(s) - hypothalamus , calretinin , medicine , endocrinology , parvalbumin , biology , fetus , neurochemical , aromatase , estrogen receptor , estrogen , immunohistochemistry , pregnancy , neuroscience , genetics , cancer , breast cancer
Abstract In this study we performed a neurochemical characterization of the hypothalamus in the developing alpaca ( Vicugna pacos ) with the aim of revealing the distributions of immunoreactive (‐ir) cells containing parvalbumin (PV), calbindin (CB), calretinin (CR), the somatostatin (SOM), the enzyme aromatase P450 (P450Arom), the estrogen receptor α (ER‐α), and estrogen receptor β (ER‐β) in embryonal stages, early fetal age, and in the newborn. This analysis has been carried out on embryos at 20, 30, 45 days, fetuses at 90 days, and newborn alpaca. Our immunohistochemical results revealed no cells‐ir throughout the embryonic hypothalami of 20, 30, and 45 days. On the fetal stage of 90 days, SOM‐ir cells were observed in the lateral hypothalamus and the ventromedial nuclei of the tuberal region. We checked for the presence of P450Arom‐ir cells in the periventricular area and dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus of the tuberal region. In these fetal stages, no PV‐ir, CB‐ir, CR‐ir or ERs‐ir cells were identified. In the newborn, the PV‐ir, CB‐ir, CR‐ir, and SOM‐ir cells were detected in both the anterior and tuberal hypothalamic area. The P450Arom‐ir cells the ER‐α–ir and ER‐β–ir cells were found in the anterior hypothalamus. Our results offer a contribution in the future purpose to obtain a time‐expression pattern of the considered markers in alpaca during gestation and represents a foundation for future investigations on the alpaca brain to define the cross talk between PV, CB, CR, P450Arom, SOM, and ERs in the hypothalamus, the strategic region for the control of the reproductive behavior.