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A neuroendocrine role for chemerin in hypothalamic remodelling and photoperiodic control of energy balance

Yes / Long-term and reversible changes in body weight are typical of seasonal animals. Thyroid
hormone (TH) and retinoic acid (RA) within the tanycytes and ependymal cells of the hypothalamus have been implicated in the photoperiodic response. We investigated signalling downstream of RA and how this links to the control of body weight and food intake in photoperiodic F344 rats. Chemerin, an inflammatory chemokine, with a known role in energy metabolism, was identified as a target of RA. Gene expression of chemerin (Rarres2) and its receptors were localised within the tanycytes and ependymal cells, with higher expression under long (LD) versus short (SD) photoperiod, pointing to a physiological role. The SD to LD transition (increased food intake) was mimicked by 2 weeks of ICV infusion of chemerin into rats. Chemerin also increased expression of the cytoskeletal protein vimentin, implicating hypothalamic remodelling in this response. By contrast, acute ICV bolus injection of chemerin on a 12h:12h photoperiod inhibited food intake and decreased body weight with
associated changes in hypothalamic neuropeptides involved in growth and feeding after 24hr. We describe the hypothalamic ventricular zone as a key site of neuroendocrine regulation, where the inflammatory signal, chemerin, links TH and RA signaling to hypothalamic remodeling. / BBSRC (grant number BB/K001043/1) and the Scottish Government.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/8381
Date05 October 2016
CreatorsHelfer, Gisela, Ross, A.W., Thomson, L.M., Mayer, C.D., Stoney, P.N., McCaffery, P.J., Morgan, P.J.
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle, Published version
Rights© 2016 The Authors. Published open access by Nature Publishing Group. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, CC-BY

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