Agouti lethal yellow (A(y)) mice express agouti ectopically because of a genetic rearrangement at the agouti locus. The agouti peptide is a potent antagonist of the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) expressed in neurons, and this leads to hyperphagia, hypoactivity, and increased fat mass. The MC4R signals through Gs and is thought to stimulate the production of cAMP and activation of downstream cA...

White adipose tissue is a dynamic endocrine organ that releases an array of adipokines, which play key role in regulating metabolic homeostasis and multiple other physiological processes. An altered adipokine secretion profile from depots frequently characterizes obesity related cardio-metabolic diseases. Asprosin recently discovered released response to fasting. Following secretion, asprosin a...

Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation to the skin downregulates lipid synthesis and adipokine production in subcutaneous fat. Recent evidence also suggests that UV exposure limits body weight gain obesity models. However, it is still unclear how chronic modulates energy metabolism of whole body. High fat- or normal diet-fed female C57BL/6 mice were treated with sham for 12 weeks. stimulated food intake ...

Agouti protein and Agouti-related protein (Agrp) regulate pigmentation and body weight, respectively, by antagonizing melanocortin receptor signaling. A carboxyl-terminal fragment of Agouti protein, Ser73-Cys131, is sufficient for melanocortin receptor antagonism, but Western blot analysis of skin extracts reveals that the electrophoretic mobility of native Agouti protein corresponds to the mat...

BACKGROUND Neuropeptide Y (NPY), agouti related peptide (AgRP), cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) and melanocortins, the products of the proopiomelanocortin (POMC), are hypothalamic peptides involved in feeding regulation and energy homeostasis. Recent evidence has demonstrated their expression in rat and human placenta. METHODS In the current study, we have investigated the...

Agouti protein and Agouti-related protein (Agrp) are paracrine-signaling molecules that normally regulate pigmentation and body weight, respectively. These proteins antagonize the effects of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) and other melanocortins, and several alternatives have been proposed to explain their biochemical mechanisms of action. We have used a sensitive bioassay bas...

objective(s) recent studies on human indicate that the introduction of therapeutic use of tolerogenic dendritic cell (dc) for chronic inflammatory conditions is imminent. for the purpose of defining cgrp potency in tolerogenic dc production, we investigated the phenotype and il-'2 production of dcs generated from the monocytes of rheumatoid arthritis (ra) patients in the presence of the ca...

The hypothalamic melanocortin system is unique among neuropeptide systems controlling energy homeostasis, in that both anorexigenic proopiomelanocortin (POMC)-derived and orexigenic Agouti related-peptide (AgRP)-derived ligands act at the same receptors, namely melanocortin 3 and 4 receptors (MC3/4R). AgRP clearly acts as a competitive antagonist at MC3R and MC4R but may also have an inverse ag...

Deficient leptin signaling causes infertility via reduced activity of GnRH neurons, causing a hypogonadal state in both rodents and humans. Because GnRH neurons do not express leptin receptors, leptin's effect on GnRH neurons must be indirect. Neurons within the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus that coexpress AGRP and NPY are considered to be important intermediate neurons involved in leptin regula...