Astrocytes in neural circuits controlling appetite and food intake

Multiple neural systems controlling food intake and body weight.

Discovery of the leptin receptor and its downstream peptidergic pathways has reconfirmed the crucial role of the hypothalamus in the regulation of food intake and energy balance. Strategically located in the midst of the mammalian neuraxis, the hypothalamus receives at least three distinct types of relevant information via direct or indirect neural connections as well as hormone receptors and s...

Ghrelin enhances appetite and increases food intake in humans.

Ghrelin is a recently identified endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor. It is synthesized predominantly in the stomach and found in the circulation of healthy humans. Ghrelin has been shown to promote increased food intake, weight gain and adiposity in rodents. The effect of ghrelin on appetite and food intake in man has not been determined. We investigated the effects ...

Humoral factors controlling food intake in dogs.

The effects of morphine and nicotine co-administration on body weight, food intake and appetite-regulating peptides in rats

Previous studies in humans and animals have reported that nicotine administration decreases body weightand caloric intake. Opiate and cigarette have been used concomitantly as drug abuse. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to analyze the effect of chronic co-administration of nicotine and morphine on food intake, body weight and on some feeding-associated peptides. All experiments wer...

Brain regulation of food intake and appetite: molecules and networks.

In the clinic, obesity and anorexia constitute prevalent problems whose manifestations are encountered in virtually every field of medicine. However, as the command centre for regulating food intake and energy metabolism is located in the brain, the basic neuroscientist sees in the same disorders malfunctions of a model network for how integration of diverse sensory inputs leads to a coordinate...