Adipose tissue mobilization is unaffected by obesifying hypothalamic knife cuts.

Unilateral electrolytic lesions of the medial hypothalamus have previously been reported to spare starvation-induced lipid mobilization from the ipsilateral retroperitoneal fat pad. This suggests that deficient lipid mobilization contributes to the enhanced lipid deposition which results when such lesions are bilateral. In contrast, unilateral parasagittal hypothalamic knife cuts, which also obesify when bilateral, failed to prevent starvation-induced ipsilateral lipid mobilization. This finding indicates that impairment of neurally mediated lipid mobilization is probably neither a necessary nor a sufficient feature of hypothalamic obesity.