The effects of fructose feeding on the quantal catecholamine release from adrenal chromaffin cells

• Author / Creator

  Simpson, Michael Robert

• The fructose-fed rat is an animal model of metabolic syndrome, which includes the development of hypertension. In other animal models of hypertension, an increase in the amount catecholamine released from chromaffin cells was reported. Employing carbon fibre amperometry, I tested the hypothesis that fructose feeding causes an increase in the amount of catecholamine released from individual adrenal chromaffin cells. When I stimulated chromaffin cells from fructose-fed rats with a non-selective acetylcholine agonist, they secreted more catecholamine than cells from age-matched control rats, although the amplitude of the rise in intracellular Ca2+ (measured by fura-2) was not increased. Fructose feeding also increased the amount of catecholamine released from individual secretory granules. These changes in catecholamine release were not reproduced when the cells were stimulated by elevating the extracellular concentration of K+. My findings suggest that fructose feeding may alter the expression or function of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in chromaffin cells.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Amperometry
  • Adrenal chromaffin cells
  • Fructose-fed rats

• Graduation date

  Spring 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R32J68B40

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.