Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid hormonal peptide that is intimately related to the regulation of food intake and body weight. Once secreted, ghrelin binds to the growth hormone secretagogue receptor-1a, the only known receptor for ghrelin and is capable of activating a number of signaling cascades, ultimately resulting in an increase in food intake and adiposity. Because ghrelin has been linked to o...

It is well known that dietary fiber stimulates the release of satiety hormones such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which in turn suppresses appetite. In order to evaluate appetite regulating role enzymatically synthesized glycogen (ESG, one resistant starch), we examined effects supplementation ESG on food intake and cecal proglucagon gene expression normal high fat diet-fed mice. Twenty f...

Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) created within the intestinal lumen by bacterial fermentation of largely undigested dietary carbohydrates. Its beneficial effects on cellular energy metabolism and homeostasis have garnered significant attention among SCFAs. also has systemic known to regulate immune system. Most butyrate other SCFAs are produced in human colon, through fiber or resis...

Body fluid homeostasis is maintained by a complex network of central and peripheral systems that regulate blood pressure, fluid and electrolyte excretion, and fluid intake. The behavioral components, which include well regulated water and saline intake, are influenced by a number of hormones and neuropeptides. Since the early 1970s, it has been known that the ovarian estrogens play an important...

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is one of the most potent stimulants of food intake in many animals. Most of the supporting evidence for the effects of NPY has been gathered in mammalian species using porcine NPY. To investigate the effects of NPY on precocial feeding initiation in chicks, we firstly used chicken NPY (cNPY) to study its role in food intake and spontaneous activities in 3-day-old male chic...

The amygdala is rich in melanocortin 4 receptors. Because the reduction in dietary fat intake after enterostatin is injected in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) is blocked by a melanocortin 4 receptor antagonist, we investigated the role of melanocortin activity in the CeA in regulating food intake and macronutrient choice. Sprague-Dawley rats, fitted with CeA cannulas, were fed either...

Heat stress-induced reduction in feed intake is an annoyance of the poultry industry. Feed intake is regulated by complex mechanisms in which brain-gut neuropeptides are involved, but the changes in such neuropeptides in broiler chickens during heat exposure remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of acute heat stress (35°C, 6 h, and 65% relative humidity) on the gene express...

Objective: High-fat diet was used to induce cholesterol lithogenesis in the gallbladder of C57BL/6 mice in which the effects of capsaicin on the cholesterol lithogenesis were investigated and the potential mechanism was explored. Methods: A total of 30 C57BL/6 mice were randomly didivded intocontrol group (mice were feed with normal food), gallbladder stone group (GS group; mice received high f...

Drug addiction is characterized by uncontrolled drug consumption and high rates of relapse to drug taking during periods of attempted abstinence. Addiction is now largely considered a disorder of experience-dependent neuroplasticity, driven by remodeling of synapses in reward and motivation relevant brain circuits in response to a history of prolonged drug intake. Alterations in gene expression...

Knowledge about the relationship between exercise and appetite is important both for athletes wishing to optimise performance and for those interested in maintaining a healthy body weight. A variety of hormones are involved in appetite regulation including both episodic hormones, which are responsive to episodes of feeding, and tonic hormones, which are important regulators of energy storage ov...