The hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) and the area postrema (AP) represent targets for hormonal and metabolic signals involved in energy homoeostasis, e.g. glucose, amylin, insulin, leptin, peptide YY (PYY), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and ghrelin. Orexigenic neuropeptide Y expressing ARC neurons are activated by food deprivation and inhibited by feeding in a nutrient-dependent manner. PYY...

Plasma concentrations of insulin, cortisol and growth hormone, and growth velocities have been measured in a group of Gambian village children up to 3 years of age. All three hormones showed changes in concentration with age, as did rates of growth. 2. Plasma insulin concentrations in the children were directly correlated with velocity of growth in height and weight, whereas cortisol concentrat...

The estimated prevalence of obesity in the USA is 72.5 million adults with costs attributed to obesity more than 147 billion dollars per year. Though caloric restriction has been used extensively in weight control studies, short-term success has been difficult to achieve, with long-term success of weight control being even more elusive. Therefore, novel approaches are needed to control the rate...

The endocrine system mediates many of the physiological responses to the homeostatic and acclimation demands of salt and water transport. Many of the hormones involved in the control of salt and water transport are common to all vertebrates, although their precise function and target tissues have changed during evolution. Arginine vasopressin (vasotocin), angiotensin II, natriuretic peptides, v...

different contraceptive methods are used by breastfeeding mothers. in general, these methods are classified into two major groups, hormonal and non-hormonal. a number of studies have shown that combined oral contraceptive pills may adversely affect the quality and the quantity of human milk. in other studies it has been shown that estrogen and progesterone seem to reduce the risk of cardiac and...

BACKGROUND More than 15 million women, many of reproductive age, were infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at the end of 2007. As the HIV epidemic evolves, heterosexual intercourse is increasingly risky: the risk of infection in exposed young women is 4- to 7-fold higher than in young men and nearly half a million newborns annually have HIV. This review aims to show the effect of co...

Hypothalamic 5'-adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) senses intracellular metabolic stress, i.e., an increase in the cellular AMP:ATP ratio, and integrates diverse hormonal and nutritional signals to restore energy balance. Recent evidence suggests that different nutrients can modulate AMPK activity in the hypothalamus, thereby controlling weight gain through a leptin-indepen...

The hypothalamus is a crucial central nervous system area controlling appetite, body weight and metabolism. It consists in multiple neuronal types that sense, integrate and generate appropriate responses to hormonal and nutritional signals partly by fine-tuning the expression of specific batteries of genes. However, the mechanisms regulating these neuronal gene programmes in physiology and path...

NUMEROUS observations have implicated humoral factors in the homeostatic regulation of fluid and electrolyte balance. This review will focus on a recently discovered peptide that is synthesized and stored in cardiac atrial myocytes and exerts potent, selective, and transient biological effects. Characterization of the cardiac substance has shown that it is not related to endogenous Na,K-ATPase ...

The Vital 90TM Days begins approximately 60 days prior to calving and continues through the first 30 days of lactation. During this time, dairy cows experience a series of biological and physiological transitions that are usually accompanied by large changes in feed intake, dramatic shifts in hormonal profiles, and major fluxes in hepatic demands and function. The resulting negative energy and ...