Regulation of Appetite and Obesity

The paper identifies a neural circuit involving hypocretin/orexin neurons that rapidly suppresses hunger through a GABAergic relay, enabling dynamic regulation of hunger based on arousal.

The paper shows that leptin signaling through IKC complexes is critical for neurodevelopment, and that perinatal leptin supplementation can reverse defects in Kcnb1-null mice.

This study identifies the claustrum's role in appetitive feeding by showing its neurons and circuitry reduce high-fat diet intake.

This study identifies a single dorsal vagal complex circuit that mediates both aversive and anorectic responses to GLP1R agonists, showing that APGlp1r neurons are responsible for both effects.

This study investigates whether flavor-nutrient learning (FNL) predicts resistance to diet-induced obesity in rats, finding that stronger FNL responses are associated with less weight gain.

This study describes the maintenance of selectively bred obesity-prone and obesity-resistant rat lines, characterizes their phenotypes, and examines striatal function and food motivation.

The paper develops and validates an IHC/LCM-Seq method to profile transcriptomes of AgRP and POMC neurons in human hypothalamus, revealing distinct gene expression patterns and potential pharmacological targets for weight management.

The paper identifies two distinct CGRP neuron populations with different roles in post-ingestive learning, showing one is involved in learning about post-ingestive effects while not affecting food consumption.

This study examines how protein restriction affects meal patterning in mice, showing increased snacking and feasting behaviors when protein intake is restricted.

This study shows that adolescent food insecurity in rats reduces gut signal sensitivity and increases cue-driven appetitive behaviors, potentially leading to overeating and weight gain.

This paper identifies a population of Ntsr1-expressing neurons in the parabrachial nucleus that project to the ventromedial hypothalamus, modulating food intake and anxiety through chemogenetic activation and silencing.

This study investigates how mu opioid receptor (MOPR) in the pancreas affects metabolism and eating behaviors, finding sex-specific effects on body mass, glucose tolerance, and meal patterns.

The paper introduces the Crunchometer, an open-source acoustic system for high-resolution feeding analysis, and shows it detects changes in feeding behavior and identifies meal-related neurons in mice.

This study identifies perineurial cells as integrators of leptin and sympathetic outflow, showing their role in obesity protection through barrier function and beta 2 adrenergic receptor regulation.

This study shows that microglial estrogen receptor alpha ablation in male mice leads to diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance, while females show no weight gain but mild insulin resistance.

The paper identifies the medial prefrontal cortex as the strongest cortical input to the lateral hypothalamus, with distinct synaptic dynamics and integration patterns.

This study generates human appetite-regulating neurons and tanycytes from stem cells, identifying key progenitor markers and signaling mechanisms for hypothalamic subregion specification.

The paper shows that environmental cues predicting future fasting rapidly activate AgRP neurons via a circuit involving PVHSim2 neurons.

This study identifies that semaglutide induces weight loss via cAMP-dependent mechanisms in GLP1R-expressing hindbrain neurons through both Gs- and Gq-signaling pathways.

This study shows that rats' lever-pressing behavior is goal-directed and influenced by their nutritional state, indicating that nutrient-specific appetites drive action choices.

The paper identifies a distinct subpopulation of ovBNST neurons expressing Vipr2 that drives food intake and is activated by food restriction.

The paper investigates the two-phase response of AgRP neurons to oral glucose and finds that the second phase tracks glycemic response and aligns with blood glucose rate of change.

This study identifies a prefrontal cortex-lateral hypothalamus circuit that mediates stress-driven increased food intake in mice.

This study shows chronic semaglutide increases motivation for food rewards and cues but reduces overall food consumption in rats.

The paper identifies a conserved postprandial metabolite, pTOS, that links nutrient intake to energy balance through a gut-brain pathway in pythons and mice, with potential relevance to humans.

The paper analyzes licking patterns in rats in response to direct controls of water intake, finding dose-related increases in burst number but not burst size or lick rate.

This study shows that GIP receptor agonism reduces food intake and prevents aversion through distinct neural circuits, with different roles for CGRP neurons and the dorsal vagal complex.

This study shows AgRP neurons are essential for maintaining body temperature during time-restricted feeding but not for body weight regulation when food is freely available.

This study investigates the physiological functions of Otp in adult mice, finding impaired stress responses and metabolic changes after conditional deletion.