JB Systemic Sodium Selenate

(Brief background of the experiment).

Sodium Selenate (Na2Se04) activates PP2A.

Agenda

1. Test Conditioned Taste Aversion (23 days)

Rats (n= 24) on 8 days of water restriction (3h, 3h, 1h, 1h, 30 min, 30 min, 10 min, 10 min). Start Restriction on Tuesday, 2011-11-29

Weigh rats Wednesday, 2011-12-7

Conditioning day Thursday, 2011-12-8:

4 groups (n=6 per group) : NaCl/NaCl, NaCl/LiCl, Na2Se04/NaCl, Na2Se04/LiCl

at -2 h, Inject with sodium selenate 12 mg/kg i.p. (n=12) or NaCl 0.15 M , 1 ml/kg (n= 12)

For isotonic solution of sodium selenate: Na2Se04 at 12 mg/ml (63 mM), NaCl at 3.2 mg/ml (55mM) = 300 mOsm

at 0 h, 10 min access to 0.125% saccharin (CS)

at 0.5 h, inject with LiCl (0.15 M, 6 ml/kg, i.p.) (n=12) or NaCl (n=12)

at 1.5 h, Return water overnight

Next day start 2-bottle, 24-h preference test (saccharin vs. water) for 14 days. End on Friday, 2011-12-23.

Results: While NaCl-LiCl rats acquired a moderate aversion, the dose of sodium selenate was too high: all of the selenate treated rats acquired a strong CTA, with zero preference for saccharin that persisted for all 14 days of 2-bottle testing.

Conclusion: next time, we'll reduce dose of sodium selenate.

2. Test c-Fos induction

reuse same rats, shuffled into 4 groups: NaCl/NaCl, NaCl/LiCl, Na2Se04/NaCl, Na2Se04/LiCl

at -2 h, Inject with sodium selenate 12 mg/kg i.p. (n=12) or NaCl 0.15 M , 1 ml/kg (n= 12)

at 0 h, inject with LiCl (0.15 M, 6 ml/kg, i.p.) (n=12) or NaCl (n=12)

at 1 h, perfuse rats

process for c-Fos (~ 1 week in the lab)