Biomaterial Database

Role of the medial preoptic area in thermal preference of rats. 2001

B Ray, and H Mallick, and V M Kumar

Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi-110 029.

This study was conducted to find out whether the medial preoptic area (mPOA) plays a role in the selection of ambient temperature by rats. Adult male Wistar rats were kept in an environmental chamber having three interconnected compartments, maintained at three different temperatures (18 degrees, 24 degrees and 30 degrees C) in which the animals could move freely from one compartment to the other. Normal rats preferred to stay at the chamber maintained at 24 degrees C for most of the time, during day and night. The temperature preference shifted to 30 degrees C after the mPOA of these rats had been lesioned by local administration of 5 micrograms of N-methyl D-aspartic acid (NMDA) in 0.2 microliter distilled water. The results of the study suggest that the mPOA acts as a fine tuning center for homeostatic regulation of thermal balance, including selection of appropriate thermal environment. It is proposed that after the mPOA lesion, the animal cannot assess properly the energy status of the body and thereby prefers a higher ambient temperature.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D011301	Preoptic Area	Region of hypothalamus between the ANTERIOR COMMISSURE and OPTIC CHIASM.	Area Preoptica,Lateral Preoptic Area,Medial Preoptic Area,Preoptic Nuclei,Area Preopticas,Area, Lateral Preoptic,Area, Medial Preoptic,Area, Preoptic,Areas, Lateral Preoptic,Areas, Medial Preoptic,Areas, Preoptic,Lateral Preoptic Areas,Medial Preoptic Areas,Nuclei, Preoptic,Nucleus, Preoptic,Preoptic Area, Lateral,Preoptic Area, Medial,Preoptic Areas,Preoptic Areas, Lateral,Preoptic Areas, Medial,Preoptic Nucleus,Preoptica, Area,Preopticas, Area
D001833	Body Temperature Regulation	The processes of heating and cooling that an organism uses to control its temperature.	Heat Loss,Thermoregulation,Regulation, Body Temperature,Temperature Regulation, Body,Body Temperature Regulations,Heat Losses,Loss, Heat,Losses, Heat,Regulations, Body Temperature,Temperature Regulations, Body,Thermoregulations
D004734	Energy Metabolism	The chemical reactions involved in the production and utilization of various forms of energy in cells.	Bioenergetics,Energy Expenditure,Bioenergetic,Energy Expenditures,Energy Metabolisms,Expenditure, Energy,Expenditures, Energy,Metabolism, Energy,Metabolisms, Energy
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D013696	Temperature	The property of objects that determines the direction of heat flow when they are placed in direct thermal contact. The temperature is the energy of microscopic motions (vibrational and translational) of the particles of atoms.	Temperatures
D017208	Rats, Wistar	A strain of albino rat developed at the Wistar Institute that has spread widely at other institutions. This has markedly diluted the original strain.	Wistar Rat,Rat, Wistar,Wistar Rats
D051381	Rats	The common name for the genus Rattus.	Rattus,Rats, Laboratory,Rats, Norway,Rattus norvegicus,Laboratory Rat,Laboratory Rats,Norway Rat,Norway Rats,Rat,Rat, Laboratory,Rat, Norway,norvegicus, Rattus