Publication Date:
2005-10-29
Description:
Hypothalamic neurons that express neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related protein (AgRP) are thought to be critical regulators of feeding behavior and body weight. To determine whether NPY/AgRP neurons are essential in mice, we targeted the human diphtheria toxin receptor to the Agrp locus, which allows temporally controlled ablation of NPY/AgRP neurons to occur after an injection of diphtheria toxin. Neonatal ablation of NPY/AgRP neurons had minimal effects on feeding, whereas their ablation in adults caused rapid starvation. These results suggest that network-based compensatory mechanisms can develop after the ablation of NPY/AgRP neurons in neonates but do not readily occur when these neurons become essential in adults.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Luquet, Serge -- Perez, Francisco A -- Hnasko, Thomas S -- Palmiter, Richard D -- K01 DA026504/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2005 Oct 28;310(5748):683-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Box 357370, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16254186" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Aging/physiology
;
Agouti-Related Protein
;
Animals
;
Animals, Newborn
;
Arcuate Nucleus of Hypothalamus/cytology
;
Body Weight/physiology
;
Diphtheria Toxin
;
Feeding Behavior/*physiology
;
Heparin-binding EGF-like Growth Factor
;
Humans
;
Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins
;
Mice
;
Neurons/metabolism/*physiology
;
Neuropeptide Y/*metabolism
;
Proteins/*metabolism
;
Receptors, Cell Surface/genetics
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
