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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #395818
Research Project: Molecular, Cellular, and Regulatory Aspects of Obesity Development

Location: Children's Nutrition Research Center

Title: Eating for hunger or pleasure: A serotonin model

Author
item YAN, ZILI - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item HE, YANLIN - Pennington Biomedical Research Center
item CAI, XING - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item SHU, GANG - South China Agricultural Univerisity
item XU, YONG - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Journal of Molecular Cell Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/30/2021
Publication Date: 9/4/2021
Citation: Yan, Z., He, Y., Cai, X., Shu, G., Xu, Y. 2021. Eating for hunger or pleasure: A serotonin model. Journal of Molecular Cell Biology. 13(9):693-694. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjab055.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjab055

Interpretive Summary: What controls feeding? The well-known "AgRP model" states that hunger activates agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons, which in turn drive eating. However, this "AgRP model" faces a challenge. Recent findings revealed that AgRP neurons decrease activity dramatically within a few seconds after feeding starts, or even without eating. Here we propose an alternative "Serotonin Model". In the brain, serotonin is a neurotransmitter also known as 5-HT. We demonstrated that the activation of these 5-HT neurons can inhibit eating. We suggest that 5-HT neurons function as a key component of a negative feedback loop. Low 5-HT neuron activity permits animals to eat; as animals continue eating, 5-HT neurons slowly elevate their activities to eventually terminate the meal. 5-HT neurons can regulate a hunger-driven feeding and a non-hunger-driven feeding in animals. Better understanding of the brain’s mechanisms for feeding behavior is crucial to developing treatments for major health problems such as obesity.

Technical Abstract: Obesity, resulting from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, represents a major health crisis to our society, due to its alarmingly high preva­lence and comorbidities, including dia­betes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and COVID-19. Better understanding the neurobiological mechanisms for feeding behavior is essential for developing rational strategies to combat obesity and related comorbidities.