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Different patterns of circadian oscillation in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of hamster, mouse, and rat

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Abstract

Although spontaneous neural firing in the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus is accepted to peak once during mid-subjective day, dual activity peaks have been reported in horizontal brain slices taken from hamsters. These two peaks were interpreted as new evidence for the theory of dual circadian oscillators and raised the expectation that such activity would be found in other circadian model systems. We examined hamster, mouse, and rat slices in both coronal and horizontal planes and found a second peak of activity only in hamster horizontal preparations. This raises interesting questions about the relative circadian physiology of these important experimental animals.

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Abbreviations

CT:

circadian time

SCN:

suprachiasmatic nucleus

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Public Health Service Grants, NS22155, NS35859 (M.U.G.), and NS11134 (P.W.B.), HL67007 (M.U.G.) and GM07134 (P.T.L.). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of funding institutions. The authors thank Shelley Tischkau and Yanxun Yu, who contributed electrophysiological data presented here, and David Burgoon, who provided statistical consultation. All protocols involving the use of animals were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of The University of Illinois and were in conformity with local, state, and federal regulations for the care and use of laboratory animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. B107 Chemical and Life Sciences Laboratory, Department of Cell and Structural Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 601 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    P. W. Burgoon & M. U. Gillette

  2. The Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    P. T. Lindberg

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  1. P. W. Burgoon
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  2. P. T. Lindberg
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  3. M. U. Gillette
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Correspondence to M. U. Gillette.

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P.W. Burgoon and P.T. Lindberg contributed equally to this work.

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Burgoon, P.W., Lindberg, P.T. & Gillette, M.U. Different patterns of circadian oscillation in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of hamster, mouse, and rat. J Comp Physiol A 190, 167–171 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0486-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-003-0486-z

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