Inhibitory Interplay between Orexin Neurons and Eating.

ABSTRACT: In humans and rodents, loss of brain orexin/hypocretin (OH) neurons causes pathological sleepiness [1-4], whereas OH hyperactivity is associated with stress and anxiety [5-10]. OH cell control is thus of considerable interest. OH cells are activated by fasting [11, 12] and proposed to stimulate eating [13]. However, OH cells are also activated by diverse feeding-unrelated stressors [14-17] and stimulate locomotion and "fight-or-flight" responses [18-20]. Such OH-mediated behaviors presumably preclude concurrent eating, and loss of OH cells produces obesity, suggesting that OH cells facilitate net energy expenditure rather than energy intake [2, 21-23]. The relationship between OH cells and eating, therefore, remains unclear. Here we investigated this issue at the level of natural physiolog

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5049542 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature