| First Author | Shah BP | Year | 2014 |
| Journal | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A | Volume | 111 |
| Issue | 36 | Pages | 13193-8 |
| PubMed ID | 25157144 | Mgi Jnum | J:216397 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5608751 | Doi | 10.1073/pnas.1407843111 |
| Citation | Shah BP, et al. (2014) MC4R-expressing glutamatergic neurons in the paraventricular hypothalamus regulate feeding and are synaptically connected to the parabrachial nucleus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111(36):13193-8 |
| abstractText | Activation of melanocortin-4 receptors (MC4Rs) restrains feeding and prevents obesity; however, the identity, location, and axonal projections of the neurons bearing MC4Rs that control feeding remain unknown. Reexpression of MC4Rs on single-minded 1 (SIM1)(+) neurons in mice otherwise lacking MC4Rs is sufficient to abolish hyperphagia. Thus, MC4Rs on SIM1(+) neurons, possibly in the paraventricular hypothalamus (PVH) and/or amygdala, regulate food intake. It is unknown, however, whether they are also necessary, a distinction required for excluding redundant sites of action. Hence, the location and nature of obesity-preventing MC4R-expressing neurons are unknown. Here, by deleting and reexpressing MC4Rs from cre-expressing neurons, establishing both necessity and sufficiency, we demonstrate that the MC4R-expressing neurons regulating feeding are SIM1(+), located in the PVH, glutamatergic and not GABAergic, and do not express oxytocin, corticotropin-releasing hormone, vasopressin, or prodynorphin. Importantly, these excitatory MC4R-expressing PVH neurons are synaptically connected to neurons in the parabrachial nucleus, which relays visceral information to the forebrain. This suggests a basis for the feeding-regulating effects of MC4Rs. |
