AgRP neurons are not indispensable for body weight maintenance in adult mice

Jing Cai; Jing Chen; Joshua Ortiz-Guzman; Jessica Huang; Benjamin R Arenkiel; Yuchen Wang; Yan Zhang; Yuyan Shi; Qingchun Tong; Cheng Zhan

doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112789

AgRP neurons are not indispensable for body weight maintenance in adult mice

Cell Rep. 2023 Jul 25;42(7):112789. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112789. Epub 2023 Jul 8.

Authors

Jing Cai¹, Jing Chen², Joshua Ortiz-Guzman³, Jessica Huang¹, Benjamin R Arenkiel³, Yuchen Wang⁴, Yan Zhang⁵, Yuyan Shi⁴, Qingchun Tong⁶, Cheng Zhan⁷

Affiliations

¹ Brown Institute of Molecular Medicine at McGovern Medical School and Neuroscience Program of MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
² School of Sport Science, Beijing Sport University, Beijing 100084, China.
³ Duncan Institute of Neurological Research and Department of Neuroscience and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
⁴ Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Biomedicine of IHM, Biomedical Sciences and Health Laboratory of Anhui Province, School of Life Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
⁵ School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
⁶ Brown Institute of Molecular Medicine at McGovern Medical School and Neuroscience Program of MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: qingchun.tong@uth.tmc.edu.
⁷ Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Biomedicine of IHM, Biomedical Sciences and Health Laboratory of Anhui Province, School of Life Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. Electronic address: zhancheng@ustc.edu.cn.

Abstract

In addition to their role in promoting feeding and obesity development, hypothalamic arcuate agouti-related protein/neuropeptide Y (AgRP/NPY) neurons are widely perceived to be indispensable for maintaining normal feeding and body weight in adults, and consistently, acute inhibition of AgRP neurons is known to reduce short-term food intake. Here, we adopted complementary methods to achieve nearly complete ablation of arcuate AgRP/NPY neurons in adult mice and report that lesioning arcuate AgRP/NPY neurons in adult mice causes no apparent alterations in ad libitum feeding or body weight. Consistent with previous studies, loss of AgRP/NPY neurons blunts fasting refeeding. Thus, our studies show that AgRP/NPY neurons are not required for maintaining ad libitum feeding or body weight homeostasis in adult mice.

Keywords: CP: Neuroscience.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Agouti-Related Protein / metabolism
Animals
Arcuate Nucleus of Hypothalamus* / metabolism
Body Weight / physiology
Body Weight Maintenance*
Mice
Neurons / metabolism
Weight Loss

Substances

Agouti-Related Protein

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding