Spontaneous c-Fos rhythm in the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus: location and effect of photoperiod

A recently reported circadian rhythm in the spontaneous c-Fos immunoreactivity in the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is expressed mostly in the dorsomedial (dm) SCN, where vasopressinergic cells are located. The aim of the present study is to find out whether day length, i.e., photoperiod, affects the dm-SCN rhythm and, if so, how the rhythm adjusts to a change from a long to a short photoperiod. In addition, a question of whether the spontaneous c-Fos production is localized in vasopressin- producing cells or in other cells is also studied to characterize further the dm-SCN rhythmicity. Combined immunostaining for c-Fos and arginine vasopressin (AVP) revealed that most of c-Fos immunopositive cells were devoid of AVP; the results suggest that c-Fos-producing cells in the dm-SCN are mostly not identical with those producing AVP. In rats maintained under a long photoperiod with 16:8-h light-dark cycle (LD 16:8) daily and then released into darkness, the time of the afternoon and evening decline of the spontaneous c-Fos immunoreactivity in the dm-SCN differed just slightly from the time in rats maintained originally under a short LD 8:16 photoperiod; however, the morning c-Fos rise occurred about 4 h earlier under the long than under the short photoperiod. After a change from a long to a short photoperiod, a rough but not yet a fine adjustment of the morning c-Fos rise to the change was accomplished within 3–6 days. The results show that similar to the recently reported ventrolateral SCN rhythmicity, the intrinsic dm-SCN rhythmicity is also affected by the photoperiod and suggest that the whole SCN state is photoperiod dependent.