Fig. 1: Heat acclimation increases warm-sensitive tonic AP firing of VMPOLepR neurons.
From: Thermally induced neuronal plasticity in the hypothalamus mediates heat tolerance
a, FosTRAPping and acclimation protocol. b, Spontaneous AP frequency in neurons of short (4 h) and long (8 h) warm-TRAPped mice. Neuronal activity was recoded at the 36 °C bath temperature: one-way ANOVA: P < 0.0001; Tukey’s multiple-comparison test: P = 0.8364 (TRAP (8 h) non-acclimated (Non-accl.), TRAP (4 h) acclimated (Accl.)); ***P < 0.0001 (TRAP (8 h) Non-accl., TRAP (8 h) Accl.); ***P < 0.0001 (TRAP (4 h) Accl., TRAP (8 h) Accl.) (n = 28/3 (TRAP (8 h) Non-accl.); n = 22/2 (TRAP (4 h) Accl.) and n = 33/3 (TRAP (8 h) Accl.)). c, AP firing frequency in non-acclimated (n = 35/6) versus acclimated (n = 35/6) VMPOLepR and VMPOPacap neurons (n = 30/3 for non-acclimated and n = 37/3 for acclimated). Neuronal activity recoded at 36 °C bath temperature. Unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test: ***P < 0.0001 (VMPOLepR and VMPOPacap neurons). d, Distribution of temperature-insensitive, CSN (≤−0.6 Hz per °C), WSN (≥0.75 Hz per °C) and silent neurons in VMPOLepR (n = 81/9 non-acclimated, n = 85/10 acclimated) and VMPOPacap (n = 17/3 non-acclimated, n = 31/3 acclimated) neurons, recorded at 33 °C, 36 °C and 39 °C. e, Left: firing frequencies of non-acclimated (n = 81/9) and acclimated (n = 85/10) VMPOLepR neurons recorded at three bath temperatures as indicated. Individual cells plotted in gray and red points represent group averages. Right: temperature coefficient (Hz per °C; mean ± s.e.m.) comparison between the non-acclimated and acclimated VMPOLepR neurons. Unpaired, two-tailed Student’s t-test: ***P < 0.0001. f, Example traces of a non-acclimated and an acclimated VMPOLepR neuron. g, Heatmaps displaying in vivo single-cell VMPOLepR neuron responses at 22 °C and 36 °C, before (left) and after (right) 30 d of heat acclimation. h, Pie charts showing fractions of VMPOLepR neurons increasing (WSN + WRN), decreasing (CRN + CRN) or not changing (insensitive) activity when ambient temperature was increased from 22 °C to 36 °C, before and after heat acclimation. Number of cells pre-acclimation: WSN + WRN, 22; CRN + CRN, 25; insensitive, 4; post-acclimation: WSN + WRN, 38; CRN, 6; insensitive, 5; N = 4 mice. Ex vivo recordings performed with fast synaptic transmission blockade. Box plots represent the median and IQR (Extended Data Figs. 2 and 3). CSN, cold-sensitive neuron.
