The nucleus Locus Coeruleus (LC), a cluster of neurons in the brainstem, represents the main source of noradrenaline (NA) in the central nervous system (CNS). However, the predominant cell type in the brain are glial cells, with astrocytes being the most numerous. Astrocytes play a structural, regulatory and metabolic role in the CNS. Astrocytes supply LC neurons (LCn) with energy in a process that begins with LCn activation and NA release, which is energetically demanding. NA binds to adrenergic receptors (AR), triggering the production of L-lactate (LL) in astrocytes, which then passes to LCn. ARs are also present on the neuronal membrane. They belong to the group of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which initiate intracellular signalling pathways upon NA binding. The two main groups of ARs: α-AR and β-AR, are further divided into nine subtypes. Impaired communication between neurons and astrocytes is one of the causes of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, experiments conducted on cell co-cultures are important for better approximation of the cell interactions that occur in vivo. Experiments have shown that neuronal activity is a function of temperature. However, it remains unclear how the temperature affects the expression of key receptors such as ARs. We were interested in how a reduced temperature (34 °C) affects the expression of α1A-AR and β2-AR on LCn, and how the presence of other cells in the culture influences the expression of α1A-AR and β2-AR on LCn and the expression of α1A-AR on astrocytes. We tackled the problem with immunocytochemistry. ARs were labelled with fluorescently tagged antibodies and the fluorescence of individual cells was observed using confocal microscopy. The results showed that culturing LCn at 34 °C increased the expression of β2-AR, but did not affect the expression of α1A-AR, which may be important information when interpreting results from experiments on LCn conducted at suboptimal temperatures. Culturing astrocytes and neurons in co-culture reduced the expression of α1A-AR in both cell types, highlighting the importance of interactions between the two cell types. However, further experiments are needed to more precisely assess the effects of temperature and the presence of other cell types in culture on AR expression.
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