Feeding regulation involves multiple peripheral and brain mechanisms (12). Chemical signaling is a pivotal mechanism. One class of endogenous feeding-regulatory substances is represented by cytokines. In this article, various issues of feeding inhibition by cytokines are discussed, including behavioral, cellular, and molecular mechanisms. The description will focus on data obtained with interle...

Artiodactyls employ selective brain cooling (SBC) regularly during experimental hyperthermia. In free-ranging antelopes, however, SBC often was present when body temperature was low but absent when brain temperature was near 42°C. The primary effect of SBC is to adjust the activity of the heat loss mechanisms to the magnitude of the heat stress rather than to the protection of the brain from th...

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“reflex circuits.” Each neural circuit contains an afferent neuron that carries electrical activity from the periphery to a center of integration, either a ganglion or a specialized region of the brain. After afferent signals are processed, information flows back to the periphery via motoneurons to modify behavior. Thus afferent neurons were thought to be the sensors of the digestive state. Sin...

Mechanotransduction in Caenorhabditis elegans touch receptor neurons is mediated by an ion channel formed by MEC-4, MEC-10 and accessory proteins. To define the role of these subunits in the channel’s response to mechanical force, we expressed degenerin channels comprised of MEC-4 and MEC-10 in Xenopus oocytes and examined its response to laminar shear stress (LSS). Shear stress evoked a rapid ...

unconscious event, until some particle of dust or chemical touches its surface. Then, a profuse secretion of tears occurs that dilutes and washes away the foreign substance. Like the eye, the gut secretes fluid, analogous to tears, unbeknownst to most of us until some event triggers an outpouring of large volumes of fluid necessary to flush out a microbe or deleterious chemical. This host defen...