Friday, February 26, 2016
Study: Metabolism Protein Found to Also Regulate Feeding Behavior in the Brain (JPB Foundation)
The molecular intricacies of hunger and satiety, pivotal for understanding metabolic disorders and the problem of obesity, are not yet fully understood by scientists. However, new research from The Rockefeller University reveals an important new component of the system responsible for regulating food intake: a hormone called amylin, which acts in the brain to help control consumption.
“How much a person eats is regulated by a complex circuit, and in order to understand it, we need to identify all the molecules involved,” says Jeffrey Friedman, Marilyn M. Simpson Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at Rockefeller. “Amylin caught our attention when we were profiling a set of neurons in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain known to be involved in feeding behavior. Because it plays a role in sugar metabolism elsewhere in the body, we were interested in exploring its function in the brain.” . . .
This work is supported by funding from The JPB Foundation. . .