Role of leptin in the neuroendocrine response to fasting

Article Abstract:

The protein leptin has a significant physiological role in the regulation of the neuroendocrine system during starvation. A fall in leptin concentration initiates a neuroendocrine response. Experiments on food-deprived male mice injected with exogenous leptin reveals the role of this protein in blunting the changes in gonadal, adrenal, and thyroid axes. Leptin also prevents starvation-induced delay in ovulation in female mice. Significantly, leptin repletion during this starvation phase is unable to influence body weight and blood glucose/ketones.

Usage, Leptin, Mice as laboratory animals, House mouse, Starvation, Neuroendocrinology

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A role for melanin-concentrating hormone in the central regulation of feeding behavior

Article Abstract:

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is involved in the hypothalamic regulation of body weight. Differential display polymerase chain reaction was used to determine differentially expressed messenger RNAs in the hypothalamus of ob/+ mice. Overexpressed mRNA encodes the neuropeptide MCH. Infusion of MCH into the lateral ventricles of rats increases their food consumption. Fasting enhances MCH mRNA levels by two fold in wild-type animals whereas, the increase in ob/ob mice was slightly less than threefold.

Physiological aspects, Hypothalamus, Body weight, Animal feeding and feeds, Neuropeptides

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Mice lacking melanin-concentrating hormone are hypophagic and lean

Article Abstract:

The physiological role of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) was further defined and the redundancy of orexigenic signals was tested. Mice having a targeted deletion of the MCH gene were generated. Such mice are lean with reduced body weight because of reduced feeding and and a raised metabolic rate. MCH was found to be an essential regulator of feeding and energy balance, operating downstream of leptin and the melanocortin system.

Observations, Peptides, Metabolic regulation, Melanin

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