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Ghrelin stimulates growth hormone release from the pituitary via hypothalamic growth hormone-releasing hormone neurons in the cichlid, Oreochromis niloticus

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Abstract

Ghrelin, a gut-brain peptide hormone, is implicated in a multiplicity of biological functions, including energy homeostasis and reproduction. Neuronal systems that are involved in energy homeostasis as well as reproduction traverse the hypothalamus; however, the mechanism by which they control energy homeostasis is not fully understood. The present study analyzes the anatomical relationship of neurons expressing gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), neuropeptide Y (NPY) and growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) in a cichlid, tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Additionally, we examine in vivo effects of ghrelin on these hypothalamic neurons and plasma growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels. Double-immunofluorescence showed neuronal fiber associations between GnRH, NPY and GHRH in the brain and pituitary. Intracerebroventricular injection of ghrelin had no effect on numbers, soma size, or optical density of GnRH and NPY neurons, whereas the number of GHRH neurons was significantly decreased in the animals injected with ghrelin when compared to controls, which may indicate administered ghrelin promoted GHRH release. Plasma GH and pituitary GH mRNA levels were significantly increased in the animals injected with ghrelin. These results suggest that central administration of ghrelin primarily act on hypothalamic GHRH neurons to stimulate GH release from the pituitary in the tilapia.

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Abbreviations

GnRH:

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone

NPY:

Neuropeptide Y

GHRH:

Growth hormone-releasing hormone

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Acknowledgements

The initial part of this project was conducted at the Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. The authors thank Mr. Hiroshi Uchida, Ms. Rachel Shalini Anthonysamy, Ms. Kai We Ng, Drs. Hideki Sato, Geeta Selvarajah and Tomoko Soga for their technical support. The authors also thank Prof. Yasuo Sakuma (University of Tokyo Health Sciences, Tokyo, Japan) for advice during the course of the study. This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; Grant number: 14580777 (to I.S.P.) and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; Grant number: H16-kagaku-002 (to I.S.P.) and Monash University Malaysia: MM-2-5-06, MM-7-07, MM-6-08, IP-09-01 (to I.S.P.) and M-2-1-06, M-2-07, M-4-08 (to S.O.). Additional support was provided by the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program/USDA award no. 2002-35206-11629 and 2004-05124 and USDA/ARS CRIS Project #1930-31000-003-00D (to B.S.S.) and Guangdong Marine Fishery Science and Technology Project, A201301B02 (to X.L.).

Disclosure summary

The authors have nothing to disclose.

Grants

This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; Grant number: 14580777 (to I.S.P.), the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; Grant number: H16-kagaku-002 (to I.S.P.) and Monash University Malaysia: MM-2-5-06, MM-7-07, MM-6-08, IP-09-01 (to I.S.P.) and M-2-1-06, M-2-07, M-4-08 (to S.O.). Additional support was provided by the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program/USDA award no. 2002-35206-11629 and 2004-05124, and USDA/ARS CRIS Project #1930-31000-003-00D (to B.S.S.) and Guangdong Marine Fishery Science and Technology Project, A201301B02 (to X.L.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brain Research Institute, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, 47500, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia

    Satoshi Ogawa & Ishwar S. Parhar

  2. School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Xiaochun Liu

  3. USDA/ARS/School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, 53204, USA

    Brian S. Shepherd

Authors
  1. Satoshi Ogawa
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  2. Xiaochun Liu
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  3. Brian S. Shepherd
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  4. Ishwar S. Parhar
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Contributions

S.O., X.L. and B.S.S. performed the research; S.O. and I.S.P. designed the research study; S.O., B.S.S. and I.S.P. analyzed data; S.O., B.S.S. and I.S.P. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ishwar S. Parhar.

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Ogawa, S., Liu, X., Shepherd, B.S. et al. Ghrelin stimulates growth hormone release from the pituitary via hypothalamic growth hormone-releasing hormone neurons in the cichlid, Oreochromis niloticus. Cell Tissue Res 374, 349–365 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-018-2870-6

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