Early adversity promotes binge-like eating habits by remodeling a leptin-responsive lateral hypothalamus-brainstem pathway.

ABSTRACT: Early-life trauma (ELT) is a risk factor for binge eating and obesity later in life, yet the neural circuits that underlie this association have not been addressed. Here, we show in mice that downregulation of the leptin receptor (Lepr) in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) and its effect on neural activity is crucial in causing ELT-induced binge-like eating and obesity upon high-fat diet exposure. We also found that the increased activity of Lepr-expressing LH (LH^Lepr) neurons encodes sustained binge-like eating in ELT mice. Inhibition of LH^Lepr neurons projecting to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray normalizes these behavioral features of ELT mice. Furthermore, activation of proenkephalin-expressing ventrolateral periaqueductal gray neurons, which receive inhibitory

SUBMITTER: Shin S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9829538 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature