| Literature DB >> 23348063 |
Amparo Romero-Picó1, Maria J Vázquez, David González-Touceda, Cintia Folgueira, Karolina P Skibicka, Mayte Alvarez-Crespo, Margriet A Van Gestel, Douglas A Velásquez, Christoph Schwarzer, Herbert Herzog, Miguel López, Roger A Adan, Suzanne L Dickson, Carlos Diéguez, Rubén Nogueiras.
Abstract
The opioid system is well recognized as an important regulator of appetite and energy balance. We now hypothesized that the hypothalamic opioid system might modulate the orexigenic effect of ghrelin. Using pharmacological and gene silencing approaches, we demonstrate that ghrelin utilizes a hypothalamic κ-opioid receptor (KOR) pathway to increase food intake in rats. Pharmacological blockade of KOR decreases the acute orexigenic effect of ghrelin. Inhibition of KOR expression in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus is sufficient to blunt ghrelin-induced food intake. By contrast, the specific inhibition of KOR expression in the ventral tegmental area does not affect central ghrelin-induced feeding. This new pathway is independent of ghrelin-induced AMP-activated protein kinase activation, but modulates the levels of the transcription factors and orexigenic neuropeptides triggered by ghrelin to finally stimulate feeding. Our novel data implicate hypothalamic KOR signaling in the orexigenic action of ghrelin.Entities:
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Year: 2013 PMID： 23348063 PMCID： PMC3656373 DOI： 10.1038/npp.2013.28
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Neuropsychopharmacology ISSN： 0893-133X Impact factor: 7.853