Key to check obesity is in our brain

Newly Found Cells May Help Control Hunger

Cells in the brain that may help control the hunger im pulse have been discovered, with the

development holding out hope of new treatments for obesity . The research adds weight to

evidence that eating is a surprisingly complex biological behaviour.

“We have identified two new populations of cells in the brain that potently regulate appetite,“

said Alexander Nectow, who published a paper about the study in the journal `Cell'. The area

of the brainstem under scrutiny is the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), where the two types of

cells are located. It is thought new drugs to treat obesity by controlling hunger messages that

prompt people to seek out and consume food could be targeted at those cells.

Nectow, an associate research scholar at Princeton Uni versity, US, found that the DRN

section becomes activated in mice when they are hungry . This was discovered through

images taken using a pioneering technique called iDisco. Imaging mice that were given more

than their normal amount of food showed a different pattern of DRN activity . This showed

that neurons in this part of the brain clearly had a function in feeding behaviour. Further

research is needed to discover which neurons that make up the DRN are involved in the

process. “There are two possibilities when you see something like that,“ Nectow said.

“One is that the cells are just along for the ride -they are getting activated by hunger but

they're not actually driving the food intake process... The other possibility is that they are in

fact part of the sense-and-respond mechanism to hunger -and in this case, we suspect the

latter.“

The new research findings could be effective in creating treatments for obesity and its related

issues including diabetes.

One-fifth of the world's adults are expected to be obese by 2025, according to a paper

published in `The Lancet'.

Source: The Times of India