Maternal obesity accentuates offspring obesity in dams bred to develop diet-induced obesity (DIO) on a 31% fat, high energy (HE) diet but has no effect on offspring of diet-resistant (DR) dams. Only DIO dams became obese on HE diet when they and DR dams were fed 5% fat chow or HE diets throughout gestation and lactation. Leptin sensitivity of dissociated arcuate (ARC) and ventromedial (VMN) hyp...

Glucosensing neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMN) were studied using visually guided slice-patch recording techniques in brain slices from 14- to 21-day-old male Sprague-Dawley rats. Whole-cell current-clamp recordings were made as extracellular glucose levels were increased (from 2.5 to 5 or 10 mmol/l) or decreased (from 2.5 to 0.1 mmol/l). Using these physiological condition...

Cell loss in most adult vertebrate brain regions is thought to be irreversible. Here, we explore the effects of electrolytic lesions on the induction of cell proliferation and newborn neurons in the ventromedial nuclei (VMN) of the hypothalamus in young and adult ring doves. The hypothalamus does not normally recruit new neurons. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and tritiated thymidine ([3H]Thy) were u...

The modulation of oxytocin (OT) receptors (OTRs) by estrogen was investigated in the ventromedial hypothalamus by in vitro receptor autoradiography. Treatment of ovariectomized and adrenalectomized rats with various doses of estradiol benzoate (EB) increased OTR binding not only in the ventromedial nuclei of the hypothalamus (VMN), but also in the area lateral to the nuclei (IVMN). After a sing...

To characterize the signaling pathway by which the neurotransmitter dopamine modulates progesterone receptor (PR) activation, the steroid-dependent behavior lordosis was used in estrogen-primed ovariectomized Sprague-Dawley rats with stereotaxic implanted third ventricle cannulas. Lordosis was observed in response to solicitous males in females after central administration of the D1-like agonis...

Amylin enhances arcuate (ARC) and ventromedial (VMN) hypothalamic nuclei leptin signaling and synergistically reduces food intake and body weight in selectively bred diet-induced obese (DIO) rats. Since DIO (125)I-amylin dorsomedial nucleus-dorsomedial VMN binding was reduced, we postulated that this contributed to DIO ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) leptin resistance, and that impairing VMH (A...

Recent evidence suggests that central leptin administration fully normalizes hyperglycemia in a rodent model of uncontrolled insulin-deficient diabetes by reducing hepatic glucose production (HGP) and by increasing glucose uptake. The current studies were undertaken to determine whether brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) action in the brain lowers blood glucose in uncontrolled insulin-def...

Genetically determined obesities, involving leptin- and melanocortin-signaling pathways, have focused attention on the four medial hypothalamic nuclei as primary sources of feeding- and metabolically-based obesity. All four medial cell groups contain leptin receptors. To determine which of these cell groups normally mediates the effects of leptin on food intake and body weight gain, we injected...

Noradrenergic mechanisms in the hypothalamus may be involved in counterregulatory responses to glucoprivic episodes. After 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG; 1.2 mmol/kg iv), extracellular norepinephrine (NE) concentration in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMN) increased in a bimodal fashion to 251 +/- 39% (P < 0.001) and 150 +/- 17% (P < 0.001) of baseline during the first 30 min. In the lateral hypotha...

Regulated gene expression in single neurons can be linked to biophysical events and behavior in the case of estrogen-regulated gene expression in neurons in the ventrolateral portion of the ventromedial nucleus (VMN) of the hypothalamus. These cells are essential for lordosis behavior. What genes are coexpressed in neurons that have high levels of mRNAs for estrogen receptors (ERs)? We have bee...