Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0020505 (hyperphagia)
 6,116 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Energy homeostasis is regulated by a complex network involving peripheral and central signals that determine food intake and energy expenditure. Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) plays an essential role in this process. Animals treated with MCH develop hyperphagia and obesity. Ablation of the prepro-MCH gene leads to a lean phenotype, as does ablation of the rodent MCH receptor, MCHR-1. MCH is overexpressed in the leptin-deficient ob/ob mouse, and we hypothesized that ablation of MCH in this animal would lead to attenuation of its obese phenotype. Compared with ob/ob animals, mice lacking both leptin and MCH (double null) had a dramatic reduction in body fat. Surprisingly, the hyperphagia of the ob/ob mouse was unaffected. Instead, leanness was secondary to a marked increase in energy expenditure resulting from both increased resting energy expenditure and locomotor activity. Furthermore, double-null mice showed improvements in other parameters impaired in ob/ob mice. Compared with ob/ob mice, double-null animals had increased basal body temperature, improved response to cold exposure, lower plasma glucocorticoid levels, improved glucose tolerance, and reduced expression of stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD-1). These results highlight the importance of MCH in integration of energy homeostasis downstream of leptin and, in particular, the role of MCH in regulation of energy expenditure.
 ...
PMID:Melanin-concentrating hormone is a critical mediator of the leptin-deficient phenotype. 1289 41

Exposure to environmental cues associated with food can evoke eating behavior in the absence of hunger. This capacity for reward cues to promote feeding behaviors under sated conditions can be examined in the laboratory using cue-potentiated feeding (CPF). The orexigenic neuropeptide Melanin Concentrating Hormone (MCH) is expressed throughout brain circuitry critical for CPF. We examined whether deletion of the MCH receptor, MCH-1R, would in KO mice disrupt overeating in the presence of a Pavlovian CS+ associated with sucrose delivery. While both wild-type controls and KO mice showed comparable food magazine approach responses during the CPF test, MCH-1R deletion significantly impaired the ability of the CS+ to evoke overeating of sucrose under satiety. Through the use of a refined analysis of meal intake, it was revealed that this disruption to overeating behavior in KO mice reflected a reduction in the capacity for the CS+ to initiate and maintain bursts of licking behavior. These findings suggest that overeating during CPF requires intact MCH-1R signaling and may be due to an influence of the CS+ on the palatability of food and on regulatory mechanisms of peripheral control. Thus, disruptions to MCH-1R signaling may be a useful pharmacological tool to inhibit this form of overeating behavior.
...
PMID:Deletion of Melanin Concentrating Hormone Receptor-1 disrupts overeating in the presence of food cues. 2604 3