Hypothalamic Perineuronal Nets Are Regulated by Sex and Dietary Interventions

Authors

Nan Zhang
Zili Yan
Hailan Liu
Meng Yu
Yang He
Hesong Liu
Chen Liang
Longlong Tu
Lina Wang
Na Yin
Junying Han
Nikolas Scarcelli
Yongjie Yang
Chunmei Wang
Tianshu Zeng
Lu-Lu Chen
Yong Xu

Publication Date

1-1-2021

Journal

Frontiers in Physiology

DOI

10.3389/fphys.2021.714104

PMID

34393830

PMCID

PMC8355523

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

7-28-2021

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

hypothalamus, sex difference, diet, perineuronal net, feeding, glucose

Abstract

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are widely present in the hypothalamus, and are thought to provide physical protection and ion buffering for neurons and regulate their synaptic plasticity and intracellular signaling. Recent evidence indicates that PNNs in the mediobasal hypothalamus play an important role in the regulation of glucose homeostasis. However, whether and how hypothalamic PNNs are regulated are not fully understood. In the present study, we examined whether PNNs in various hypothalamic regions in mice can be regulated by sex, gonadal hormones, dietary interventions, or their interactions. We demonstrated that gonadal hormones are required to maintain normal PNNs in the arcuate nucleus of hypothalamus in both male and female mice. In addition, PNNs in the terete hypothalamic nucleus display a sexual dimorphism with females higher than males, and high-fat diet feeding increases terete PNNs only in female mice but not in male mice. On the other hand, PNNs in other hypothalamic regions are not influenced by sex, gonadal hormones or dietary interventions. In summary, we demonstrated that hypothalamic PNNs are regulated in a region-specific manner and these results provide a framework to further investigate the potential functions of PNNs in regulating energy/glucose homeostasis at the interplay of sex, gonadal hormones and diets.