Oxytocin neurons represent one of the major subsets of neurons in the paraventricular hypothalamus (PVH), a critical brain region for energy homeostasis. Despite substantial evidence supporting a role of oxytocin in body weight regulation, it remains controversial whether oxytocin neurons directly regulate body weight homeostasis, feeding or energy expenditure. Pharmacologic doses of oxytocin s...

Obesity and eating disorders are prevailing health concerns worldwide. It is important to understand the regulation of food intake and energy metabolism. Thiamine (vitamin B1) is an essential nutrient. Thiamine deficiency (TD) can cause a number of disorders in humans, such as Beriberi and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. We demonstrated here that TD caused anorexia in C57BL/6 mice. After feeding a...

Melanocortin-4 receptors (MC4Rs) are involved in the regulation of food intake, sympathetic nervous activity, and adrenal and thyroid function by leptin. The role of MC4Rs in regulating energy balance by leptin was investigated using double heterozygote or homozygous leptin (Lep(ob)) and Mc4r gene mutant mice. Double heterozygous or homozygous mutants were generated by crossing MC4R knockout (M...

BACKGROUND Both gastric bypass (GB) and duodenal switch with sleeve gastrectomy (DS) have been widely used as bariatric surgeries, and DS appears to be superior to GB. The aim of this study was to better understand the mechanisms leading to body weight loss by comparing these two procedures in experimental models of rats. METHODS Animals were subjected to GB, DS or laparotomy (controls), and ...

and obscures the secular increase in real expenditure on means-tested transfer programs taken as a whole. Indeed, Figure 1, which shows expenditures since 1968 in the 80 largest programs in the country, indicates that per-capita expenditure on means-tested programs is higher today than ever in its history. The enormous growth in real expenditure that occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ...

Golden spiny mice, which inhabit rocky deserts and do not store food, must therefore employ physiological means to cope with periods of food shortage. Here we studied the physiological means used by golden spiny mice for conserving energy during food restriction and refeeding and the mechanism by which food consumption may influence thermoregulatory mechanisms and metabolic rate. As comparison,...

Jay C. Erickson et al. (1) describe the energy intake and energy expenditure of mutant obese mice (ob/ob) in which the gene for neuropeptide Y (NPY) is disrupted. They conclude that deficiency of NPY in the ob/ob mouse reduces the elevated food intake and increases the low energy expenditure, partially ameliorating the obesity. Another report, by Mary Ann Pelleymounter et al. (2), describes ene...

A major advance in the understanding of the control of appetite, food intake, and energy expenditure came with the discovery of leptin. Leptin concentrations correlate with adipose tissue mass, and leptin acts via the central nervous system (CNS) to reduce food intake and increase energy expenditure. A variety of diVerent neurotransmitters have been implicated in mediating the CNS eVects of lep...

There are various approaches to measure the differences in household income. Income measured from the monetary earnings point of view is called the nominal income. Income measured from the consumption point of view i.e. the basket of consumption goods a household buys is called the real income. In this paper we analyze the income based on the consumption of Highly Nutritious Food. Using tools o...