**Speaker: Dr. Andries Kalsbeek, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

**Time: Apr 1, 2013, 10:30-11:30 am

**Place: Administration Building, Room 205

**Host by: Prof. Ai-Min Bao

**Brief Introduction:

The introduction of the microdialysis technique in neuroscience was originally designed to allow recovery of endogenous chemical substances from brain tissue by the inward diffusion from the brain tissue through a semi-permeable membrane in the dialysate perfused through the microdialysis probe. However, later it became clear that the same technique can also be used to introduce substances into the brain. The advantage of this method (also known as “retro-dialysis”) as compared to the micro-infusion techniques is that there is no significant net loss or gain of fluid into the neural tissue surrounding the probe tip, thus reducing the risk of neural damage.

　　The present lecture will describe a number of experiments designed to investigate how hypothalamic mechanisms control peripheral glucose metabolism by using microdialysis-mediated delivery of hormones or neurotransmitters into specific hypothalamic target areas. In addition, examples of the use of the microdialysis technique will be given that enable to monitor extracellular levels of vasopressin in the hypothalamic biological clock, pineal