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/ Health News / 2008 / October 2008 / October 3, 2008 Brain pathway behind obesity discovered |
Sack lunches may not provide adequate nutrients to preschooler
Packing lunch for your child might not be a good idea, for a new study has found that sack lunches may not regularly provide adequate nutrients for the growth and development of young children. ANI
Health-monitoring system helps maintain older adults well-being
Many older adults want to remain active and independent for as long as possible. Now, researchers from University of Missouri suggest that installing health monitoring system can help keep check on the health of the elderly and ensure their privacy. ANI
New drug shows potential to treat angina, other cardiac problems
A compound, designed to prevent chest pains in heart patients, could act as a drug to treat angina and possibly other cardiac pathologies, according to a study on animals. ANI
While conducting a study on mice, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered a messaging system in the brain that directly affects food intake and body weight.
Washington, Oct 3 : While conducting a study on mice, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered a messaging system in the brain that directly affects food intake and body weight.
A protein called NF-kappaB and its associated gene IKKbeta are known to be involved in metabolism in liver, fat and skeletal muscle tissues.
When Dongsheng Cai, an assistant professor of physiology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and colleagues looked for this same pathway in the hypothalamus - the part of the brain that regulates appetite and energy balance - they found it also influenced how much mice eat.
More specifically, they found overfeeding the mice spurred the pathway into action. When they suppressed the pathway's activity, the animals were significantly protected from overeating and obesity.
The researchers also examined a cell component called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), shown recently to be involved in metabolic diseases involving over-nutrition, to see if it might play a role in linking over-nutrition to activate IKKbeta/NF-kappaB in the hypothalamus.
"At the intracellular level, when the ER is challenged with over-nutrition, this leads to ER stress, which can push the IKKbeta/NF-kappaB pathway to an active state, although the involved reactions could be quite complicated," Cai said.
In several experiments, the researchers found that ER stress caused by over-nutrition activated IKKbeta/NF-kappaB in the hypothalamus.
Suppressing ER stress in the central nervous system significantly preserved normal regulation of food intake and prevented obesity.
Cai said that he hopes the discovery will eventually to a better understanding of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases - which are both fuelled by overeating.
He also hopes it will lead to new treatments and prevention strategies for those diseases.
The study is published in the Oct. 3, 2008 issue of Cell.
ANI
