Fat hormone leptin has opposite effect on two distinctive groups of nerve cells
Boston, MA, August 25, 1999--From the belly to the brain, a new study by Boston researchers shows how the fat hormone leptin works in the brain to trigger the nerve cells that control eating. The study adds important details about how leptin, which is released into the blood stream from fat, may control the cognitive aspects of feeding behavior.
The paper by Carol Elias, PhD and her colleagues in endocrinology and neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School is published August 27 in the monthly journal Neuron. "We're starting to understand the brain pathways underlying body weight regulation," says senior author Joel Elmquist, DVM, PhD, a neuroendocrinology researcher at BI-Deaconess and assistant professor of neurology and medicine at Harvard Medical School. "This study directly links neurons that respond to the fat hormone leptin and critical populations of nerve cells that regulate feeding behavior."
Since the 1940s, scientists have known that the hypothalamus played a key role
in regulating food intake and body weight. In these classic experiments with
rats, lesions in one part of the hypothalamus created massively obese rats.
Lesions in another part of the hypothalamus blocked the urge to eat and even
caused death by starvation. However, the lack of understanding of the genes for
controlling body weight regulation inhibited significant further progress.
Nearly five years ago, Jeffrey Friedman MD, PhD, a professor at Rockefeller
University, New York, and his research group rejuvenated the field. They
discovered that the hormone leptin is made by fat cells and is a crucial signal
to the brain to control eating. Suddenly there was hope for finding new ways to
control eating disorders, obesity, and related d
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Contact: Peta Gillyatt
gillyatt@hms.harvard.edu
617-432-0443
Harvard Medical School
27-Aug-1999