Dopamine and obesity

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that's well-known for its involvement in several notable medical and behavioral problems, such as Parkinson's disease and drug addiction. But it is connected with many other issues of medical and psychological importance.

Perhaps the main reason that dopamine is so interesting is that it plays a big role in the brain's pleasure and reward systems. And therefore it is inevitably involved in reward-motivated behaviors of all kinds, from gambling, investing, substance abuse, and sex, to – eating. After all, isn't a high percentage of behavior motivated by rewards? There are other motivations for particular behaviors – fear and physiological needs, for example – but reward covers an awful lot of it.

Consequently, problems in the reward system can lead to excesses in some behaviors (e. g., gambling, eating), and perhaps also deficiencies in other behaviors (e. g. loss of interest in normal pleasures, as might accompany depression).

And because of the importance of dopamine in the reward system, problems with dopamine signaling can lead to problems in the reward system, with predictable consequences.

In the research we're going to look at, dopamine signaling is impaired in the presence of a particular allele associated with the D2 receptor for dopamine (known as DRD2). The conclusion is reached via the observation of decreased activity, as mesured by fMRI, in a brain region called the dorsal striatum. It is known that the variant allele causes a lower density of D2 receptors in this region.

The bottom line of the research is that individuals with this variant allele tend to have impaired ability to enjoy rewards from foods that most people like, such as chocolate. As a result, such individuals are disposed to consume more food in order to achieve an acceptable level of satiation of reward.

It might be thought, instead, that since the desirable foods produce less reward in individuals with the variant allele, they might consume less, due to reduced interest. However, that's not how the reward system seems to work. It seems to require achievement of a certain signal level in order to reach satiation and thus decrease the motivated behavior.

This is similar to the way signaling works with another hormone connected with eating, namely leptin. Normally, leptin levels rise when food is consumed. There are receptors for leptin in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus, a region that is responsible for appetite. There leptin inhibits the activity of neurons that contain neuropeptide Y (NPY).

A connection has been found between obesity and insensitivity to leptin, much as diabetes results from decreased sensitivity to the hormone insulin. Preseumably, individuals with reduced sensitivity to leptin don't know when to stop eating. Much the same state of affairs seems to exist in individuals with the allele (which is a DNA restriction enzyme called TaqIA) that affects DRD2 receptor density in the dorsal striatum.

Obesity, Abnormal 'Reward Circuitry' In Brain Linked: Gene Tied To Dopamine Signaling Also Implicated In Overeating (10/16/08)

Using brain imaging and chocolate milkshakes, scientists have found that women with weakened "reward circuitry" in their brains are at increased risk of weight gain over time and potential obesity. The risk increases even more for women who also have a gene associated with compromised dopamine signaling in the brain.

The results, drawn from two studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at the University of Oregon's Lewis Center for Neuroimaging, appear in the Oct. 17 issue of the journal Science. The first-of-its-kind approach unveiled blunted activation in the brain's dorsal stratium when subjects were given milkshakes, which may reflect less-than-normal dopamine output.

Here's the research paper, with abstract:

Relation Between Obesity and Blunted Striatal Response to Food Is Moderated by TaqIA A1 Allele

The dorsal striatum plays a role in consummatory food reward, and striatal dopamine receptors are reduced in obese individuals, relative to lean individuals, which suggests that the striatum and dopaminergic signaling in the striatum may contribute to the development of obesity. Thus, we tested whether striatal activation in response to food intake is related to current and future increases in body mass and whether these relations are moderated by the presence of the A1 allele of the TaqIA restriction fragment length polymorphism, which is associated with dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene binding in the striatum and compromised striatal dopamine signaling. Cross-sectional and prospective data from two functional magnetic resonance imaging studies support these hypotheses, which implies that individuals may overeat to compensate for a hypofunctioning dorsal striatum, particularly those with genetic polymorphisms thought to attenuate dopamine signaling in this region.

The idea that problems with dopamine signaling might be related to overeating and obesity isn't new. The following research announced in July involved rats rather than humans and considered other dopamine insufficiency mechanisms, but the basic conclusions are the same:

Obesity Predisposition Traced To The Brain's Reward System (7/29/08)

The tendency toward obesity is directly related to the brain system that is involved in food reward and addictive behaviors, according to a new study. Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) and colleagues have demonstrated a link between a predisposition to obesity and defective dopamine signaling in the mesolimbic system in rats.

The mesolimbic system is a system of neurons in the brain that secretes dopamine, a neurotransmitter or chemical messenger, which mediates emotion and pleasure. The release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the mesolimbic system is traditionally associated with euphoria and considered to be the major neurochemical signature of drug addiction. ...

Pothos says, "These findings have important implications in our understanding of the obesity epidemic. The notion that decreased dopamine signaling leads to increased feeding is compatible with the finding from human studies that obese individuals have reduced central dopamine receptors." He speculates that an attenuated dopamine signal may interfere with satiation, leading to overeating.

Paper abstract:

Evidence for defective mesolimbic dopamine exocytosis in obesity-prone rats

In electrophysiology studies, electrically evoked dopamine release in slice preparations was significantly attenuated in OP [obesity-prone] rats, not only in the nucleus accumbens but also in additional terminal sites of dopamine neurons such as the accumbens shell, dorsal striatum, and medial prefrontal cortex, suggesting that there may be a widespread dysfunction in mechanisms regulating dopamine release in this obesity model. Moreover, dopamine impairment in OP rats was apparent at birth and associated with changes in expression of several factors regulating dopamine synthesis and release: vesicular monoamine transporter-2, tyrosine hydroxylase, dopamine transporter, and dopamine receptor-2 short-form. Taken together, these results suggest that an attenuated central dopamine system would reduce the hedonic response associated with feeding and induce compensatory hyperphagia, leading to obesity.

News reports of the human dopamine results:

• Researchers tie genes, lower reward response to weight gain (10/16/08) – Yale University press release
  
• Gene mutation predicts future weight gain (10/16/08) – New Scientist
  
• Milkshake study reveals brain's role in obesity (10/16/08) – Reuters
  
• Brain's reaction to yummy food may predict weight (10/16/08) — Associated Press
  
• Brain signals predict weight gain (10/16/08) – BBC
  
• Brain's pleasure signals linked to obesity (10/17/08) – ABC
  

E. Stice, S. Spoor, C. Bohon, D. M. Small (2008). Relation Between Obesity and Blunted Striatal Response to Food Is Moderated by TaqIA A1 Allele Science, 322 (5900), 449-452 DOI: 10.1126/science.1161550

Tags: obesity, dopamine

Peptide YY and appetite

Just about three months ago we came, briefly, across the peptide called PYY (peptide YY), which has been known, for a few years, to suppress appetite. It has also been known that obese people secrete less PYY than non-obese people. On the other hand, attempts to use PYY directly as a weight-loss drug have not met with much success.

About a year ago, research showed that consumption of protein boosts PYY levels, and in that case there was some benefit to experimental subjects in terms of reducing hunger and promoting weight loss. This would help explain the weight-loss experienced with high-protein diets. Here's a press release on that research:

Eating Protein Boosts Hormone That Staves Off Hunger (9/6/06)

The amount of a hunger-fighting hormone can be increased by eating a higher protein diet, researchers report in the September issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. The hormone, known as peptide YY (PYY), was earlier found by the researchers to reduce food intake by a third in both normal-weight and obese people when given by injection.

"We've now found that increasing the protein content of the diet augments the body's own PYY, helping to reduce hunger and aid weight loss," said Medical Research Council clinician scientist Rachel Batterham of University College London, who led the new study.

Scientists have known that high-protein content meals make people feel more full and reduce food intake, resulting in improvements in weight loss and weight loss maintenance. However, the mechanism responsible remained elusive.

In a study in normal-weight and obese people, the researchers now show that enhanced-protein meals stimulate greater release of PYY than either high-fat or high-carbohydrate meals and result in a greater reduction of hunger.

Here's another report on that research: Hello Protein, Goodbye Fat (sub. rqd.) And an earlier article on the PYY controversy: New Data on Appetite-Suppressing Peptide Challenge Critics (sub. rqd.)

Now there are additional findings from the same lab that developed the results of a year ago. The findings indicate that a cortical brain center associated with reward and pleasure (the orbital frontal cortex) responds to PYY:

Brain 'hunger pathways' pinpointed (10/15/07)

The brain circuitry that influences how much food a person will eat – whether they feel starving or full – has been revealed by a new imaging study. The results may help target new treatments against obesity, say researchers.

Rachel Batterham at University College London, UK, and her colleagues have previously shown that a hormone called peptide YY or PYY, which is released by the gut in proportion how many calories we eat, is a powerful appetite suppressant. Previous experiments show that treating normal and obese subjects with intravenous PYY decreases food intake by up to 30%.

Batterham's team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how PYY affects the brain.

So research findings to date certainly indicate that PYY has very interesting, and quite possibly useful effects. It could be very interesting to watch for further developments involving PYY.

More information:

Appetite 'control centres' found

Gluttons can blame overeating on the brain

Appetite hormone works in two brain areas

Tags: Peptide YY, PYY, appetite, high-protein diet, orbital frontal cortex

Adiponectin

As we noted in this article back in July, there are several hormones and neurotransmitters that have noteworthy effects on appetite and eating behavior, and as a result are of much interest with respect to weight gain (or loss) and obesity. The two mentioned in that article were NPY and PYY. The protein leptin is another hormone of this sort. It is often discussed in connection with obesity, because it is believed to increase metabolism and decrease appetite (as a signal of satiety). Another hormone, ghrelin, is produced in the stomach as a signal of hunger, and so it increases appetite.

A lot of research is currently appearing that deals with these substances and others, and how they are related to fat metabolism and obesity. I intend to discuss some of this research, and will begin with yet another hormone – adiponectin, which is produced exclusively in adipose tissue, i. e. fat, and hence the name. (Leptin is also produced in adipose tissue.) Unsurprisingly, adiponectin is involved in a number of metabolic processes, such as glucose regulation and the metabolism of fat for energy production.

Levels of adiponectin are inversely correlated with body mass index (BMI), and it seems to play a role in helping to stave off or ameliorate disorders such as obesity, diabetes, and atherosclerosis.

Let's begin with some older research first.

Fat Cell Hormone Causes Weight Loss (4/23/04)

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have established in an animal model that the hormone adiponectin secreted by fat tissue acts in the brain to reduce body weight. In contrast to leptin, a related hormone, adiponectin can cause weight loss by raising metabolic rate while not affecting appetite. ...

When adiponectin, which is involved in glucose and lipid metabolism, was introduced into the cerebrospinal fluid of normal mice, they showed no changes in food intake, but their metabolism rose. "The animal burns off more calories, so over time loses weight, which was very fascinating because we knew that leptin caused weight loss by suppressing appetite and increasing metabolic rate," explains [lead author Rexford] Ahima. "Here we have another fat hormone that can cause weight loss but without affecting intake."

To summarize, both leptin and adiponectin are produced in fat tissue, and both lead to increased metabolic rate. Leptin is known to be a satiety signal that also acts on the brain to decrease appetite. Although this older research suggests adiponectin has little effect on the central nervous system, we shall see that later research contradicts this.

From just about the same time we have the following, which found high levels of adiponectin in human milk, and therefore might explain the known association between breastfeeding and reduced risk of obesity later in life:

Study Detects Protein In Human Milk Linked To Reduced Risk Of Obesity (5/3/04)

The protein is adiponectin, which is secreted by fat cells and affects how the body processes sugars and lipids -- fatty substances in the blood. It's been suggested that adiponectin is involved in the metabolic syndrome, which includes insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease and occurs in 20-25 percent of adults. Higher levels of adiponectin have been associated with less disease.

If adiponectin is present in human milk, the Cincinnati Children's researchers theorized, the protein could have an influence over the metabolic "programming" of infants. That is, it could affect adiposity, or "fatness," later in life.

High levels of adiponectin were found in samples of human milk.

The researchers also confirmed the presence of leptin in human milk. Leptin is another protein produced by fat that appears to play an important role in the regulation of body fat. Leptin is a satiety hormone, involved in the state of being "full."

Adiponectin levels, however, are substantially greater than leptin in human milk, according to [lead author] Dr. [Lisa] Martin

Before we get to the latest research, here's some additional, earlier research involving adiponectin. In most of these studies, the main focus was on something else, but adiponectin was recognized as playing an important role:

Metabolic 'Footprint' May Be New Measure Of Obesity Risk In Kids (3/8/04)

Levels of a fat protein, called adiponectin, is significantly lower in overweight children and young adults. ... Adiponectin adheres to blood vessel walls, possibly protecting them by fighting inflammation at a cellular level.

Scientists Discover Obesity Disrupts Appetite Hormone, May Sabotage Body's Cues For Hunger, Fullness (7/1/04)

In addition to lower levels of ghrelin overall, the obese men showed higher levels of leptin and lower levels of adiponectin than the lean men.

Fat May Promote Inflammation, New Study Suggests (4/6/05)

In 15 study participants without diabetes, higher levels of the "bad" proteins, interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha, were associated with a lower ability to respond to insulin and use glucose. On the other hand, higher levels of the "good" protein adiponectin were associated with an increased ability to use glucose. ... "This suggests that low production of adiponectin in subcutaneous fat is linked with an elevated risk of heart disease."

Researchers Consider Possible Mechanistic Links Between Obesity And Asthma (5/12/05)

There are also changes in the blood levels of hormones derived from fat tissue in the obese that may affect the airways. One of these hormones, leptin, is pro-inflammatory and obese individuals have higher leptin levels than lean individuals. Leptin is found at higher levels among asthmatics regardless of the extent of obesity. In contrast, blood levels of another hormone, adiponectin, which has anti-inflammatory properties, are actually lower among obese individuals.

Researchers Find Lack Of Protein In Obese People Is Risk Factor For Kidney, Heart Disease (11/28/05)

Researchers have found that mice with low levels of the protein hormone adiponectin may also have high levels of a protein called albumin which, in humans, may be a sign of kidney disease. ... To prove the relationship, they also studied mice without adiponectin (“adiponectin knockout”) compared to wild-type mice whose levels were normal. The team found that the knockout mice had three times the level of urine albumin than the wild-type mice. ... In a separate study ... researchers measured the adiponectin levels of a group of obese African American adolescents. They found similar results—subjects who had a low level of adiponectin also had the condition known as albuminuria—as indicated by high levels of the protein albumin in their urine. Albuminuria is an indicator for kidney disease.

Fat-generated Hormone Drives Energetic Capacity Of Muscle (7/6/06)

The fat-generated hormone adiponectin plays an important role in the energetic capacity of skeletal muscle, according to a new study. ... Adiponectin is unusual among fat hormones in that its levels generally decline in those who are obese. The researchers report evidence in people and mice, linking low adiponectin levels to insulin resistance and reductions in the number of "cellular power plants" called mitochondria in skeletal muscle. The findings suggest that therapies designed to boost the adiponectin signal might prove beneficial for the treatment of insulin resistance and diabetes.

New Research Could Help Women Facing High Risk Of Stillbirth (9/17/06)

They particularly looked at a key signalling molecule, mainly produced by fat cells, called adiponectin. This is known to have anti-diabetic properties as well as anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic actions (it prevents blood clotting which can block arteries). ... Observations showed that adiponectin levels were higher in pregnant women with type 1 diabetes at all stages of the study compared with the non-diabetic patients. Leptin levels were not different. Furthermore, they have identified adiponectin receptors on the human placenta and detected that the placenta also produces adiponectin. The researchers believe that the fetus produces adiponectin to protect itself from an adverse environment.

Weight-loss Supplement Shows Good And Bad Traits (2/1/07)

The researchers monitored insulin sensitivity in all mice throughout the study. They also monitored levels of adiponectin, a hormone secreted by fat tissue and thought to play a role in insulin resistance. “Adiponectin helps regulate insulin levels,” Belury said. “Lowered levels are associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes.” The researchers found that CLA [conjugated linoleic acid] supplementation significantly decreased body fat in the first group of mice, but at the same time excessive amounts of fat accumulated in the animals' livers. Belury and her colleagues linked this accumulation of fat in the liver to increased insulin resistance. ... But the group of mice given [insulin-sensitizer] rosiglitazone injections while on a CLA-rich diet neither lost weight nor became insulin resistant. “The drug kept adiponectin levels steady during the weeks the mice consumed CLA,” Belury said. “We think that's what kept the animals from becoming resistant to insulin.

Anti-obesity Drug May Prevent And Treat Obesity-related Liver Disease (7/4/07)

Treatment with rimonabant also normalized levels of adiponectin, a hormone that plays a key role in metabolic disorders. It is noteworthy that these results were not (or were only slightly observed) in the control animals eating the same diet but not given rimonabant, which demonstrates the beneficial effects of the drug compared to diet alone. "Our hypothesis is that the multi-protective effects of rimonabant may be mediated for a large part by both the reduction in pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNFa and the increase in anti-inflammatory and protective cytokines or hormones such as adiponectin," the authors conclude.

In most of these earlier studies, something other than adiponectin was the main focus, yet adiponectin was recognized to have several beneficial effects, such as counteracting inflammation and insulin resistance. These effects in turn help control disorders such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, and fatty liver disease.

But let's look now at recent studies aimed at examining adiponectin itself. First off, concerning adiponectin and inflammation:

Fat Protein Cuts Blood Vessel Inflammation, May Help Heart, Scientists Find (6/24/07)

A natural substance secreted by fat cells can protect blood vessels from the damaging effects of inflammation, one of the factors that contribute to heart disease. Researchers at Jefferson Medical College have shown for the first time in an animal model that the substance – a protein called adiponectin – helps prevent immune system white blood cells from binding to the inside of blood vessel walls.

Importantly, adiponectin acted not only on leukocytes adhering to blood vessel walls, but also on inflammatory cytokines:

The scientists also looked at the effects of adiponectin on inflammation in normal mice. They gave mice a substance, TNF-alpha, which caused the release of inflammatory substances called cytokines. Injecting the mice with the active adiponectin-fragment reversed the effects of the cytokines and the resulting inflammation.

Inflammation is common in cardiovascular disease.

The next research takes a closer look at how adiponectin acts in the central nervous system:

Insulin Sensitizer Also Serves As Energy-conserving Signal To The Brain (7/12/07)

A fat-derived protein known for its effects on the liver and skeletal muscle might also serve as an energy-conserving signal to the brain during periods of starvation, suggests a new study in the July issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press. The substance, known as adiponectin, acts on the brain to boost appetite and slow energy expenditure in an effort to maintain adequate fat stores during lean times, the researchers report.

First off, there is the question of whether adiponectin even reaches the central nervous system.

The researchers now report evidence in mice that adiponectin receptors are present in the hypothalamic region of the brain and that some forms of the chemical enter the cerebrospinal fluid from the blood.

Then, supposing adiponectin reaches the central nervous system, there is the question of what effect, if any, it has there.

Once in the brain, adiponectin enhances the activity of a metabolic enzyme called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) to stimulate greater food consumption.

Moreover, the researchers found that adiponectin decreased energy expenditure. They also showed that blood and spinal fluid adiponectin levels in the brain normally increase during fasting and decrease after refeeding, suggesting that adiponectin acts mainly during food shortages.

So this research claims that adiponectin increases appetite, unlike leptin, which has the opposite effect. Further, adiponectin leads to lower activity and energy expenditure, thus conserving available energy supplies. But such effects are reversed if adiponectin is absent:

In adiponectin-deficient mice, AMPK activity in the brain slowed, causing the animals to eat less and expend more energy. That action, in turn, made the animals resistant to becoming obese even on a high-fat diet. Moreover, animals lacking adiponectin lost more fat after 12 hours of fasting than normal mice did.

If indeed adiponectin tends to lead to lower activity levels and energy expenditure, one has to ask whether it promotes fat storage or even obesity. The next, and latest, research – which received a lot more attention outside specialist literature than research mentioned above – dramatically suggests that is the case.

The research began with mice genetically engineered to lack leptin. Without this satiety hormone, the mice overate and became quite obese. However, when a subgroup of these mice were engineered to overproduce adiponectin, they ate even more, and became almost twice as obese:

‘World's fattest mouse’ appears immune to diabetes (8/23/07)

The “world’s fattest mice”, genetically engineered to overproduce a key hormone, weigh five times as much as normal mice do – but bizarrely do not develop diabetes, reveals a new study. The findings shed light on how current diabetes medications work and point to new drug targets to treat the disease, say the study's researchers.

Philipp Scherer at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, US, and his colleagues studied mice that had been genetically engineered to overeat. The mice gorged on food because they lacked the ability to produce an important appetite-suppressing hormone called leptin.

The researchers then bred a subgroup of these leptin-deficient mice to overproduce another key hormone that gets released by fat cells, called adiponectin, by about threefold. Under normal circumstances, an increase in adiponectin levels signals that an animal has entered "starvation mode" because it has not eaten for some time.

All of the leptin-deficient mice ate non-stop, but those bred to overproduce adiponectin packed on almost twice as much weight by the end of the 20-week experiment.

Incidentally (or maybe not) it was Dr. Scherer who discovered adiponectin, in 1994.

Obviously, the most interesting outcome of this research is that the mice that overproduced adiponectin did not develop diabetes, in spite of their obesity.

Interestingly, none of the rodents that made extra adiponectin developed symptoms of diabetes, such as high blood sugar. By comparison, all of the other leptin-deficient mice developed this disease during the course of the experiment.

So why might that be?

When Scherer and his team examined the distribution of body fat within the mice, they found that the obese rodents with an abundance of adiponectin had a great deal of fat stored under the skin, but very little fat within organs such as the liver.

This unusual allocation of fat might explain why the animals remained in good health – extra fat in the liver can make the organ less sensitive to insulin, thereby leading to diabetes.

Scherer firmly believes that the distribution of fat can make all the difference in terms of whether obesity will lead to diabetes. "It's a little bit like real estate; it's location, location, location."

But wait, isn't ("type 2") diabetes mostly due to an inability to use insulin – insulin resistance? The original press release on the research ties insulin resistance directly to storage of fat in the wrong places:

Key Hormone Protects Obese Mice From Diabetes (8/28/07)

"The continual firing of adiponectin generated a 'starvation signal' from fat that says it is ready to store more energy," he said. "The mice became what may be the world's fattest mice, but they have normal fasting glucose levels and glucose tolerance.

"This indicates that the inability to appropriately expand fat mass in times of overeating may be an underlying cause of insulin resistance, diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

This discovery also suggests that in people who have low adiponectin levels fat cells don't send the signal that they're ready to accept fat, Dr. Scherer said. Instead, the fat is stored in dangerous places -- liver, heart and muscle tissues -- where it can cause inflammation and pave the way for disease.

There's at least one question left to which I don't see an obvious answer: If adiponectin is produced in fat cells ("white adipose cells", to be exact), why is it negatively correlated with obesity? That is, at least in humans, we've seen that lower levels of adiponectin go along with obesity.

That's odd. Is there some mechanism that turns off adiponectin production? Evidently so, if adiponectin normally acts as a signal of food deprivation. But exactly what is the mechanism? Would interfering with the mechanism, to keep adiponectin levels high, be worthwhile for preventing insulin resistance, inflammation, and other problems? Even if weight gain, due to increased appetite, also resulted? Needs further research, I guess.

Additional references on this research:

• Being Fat Needn't Be All Bad News (8/27/07)
  
• Diabetes study: Fat is all about the location (8/24/07)
  
• 'World's Fattest Mice' Immune To Diabetes (8/23/07)
  
• Obesity Doesn't Always Spur Diabetes (8/23/07)
  
• Adiponectin protects obese mice from diabetes (8/26/07)
  

Tags: adiponectin, diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis

Stress and weight gain

There is, apparently, truth to the idea that people under stress may gain weight – and it's not just that people simply choose to escape their problems by eating. And this is only one of the reasons stress isn't good for your general health.

Scientists Discover Key To Manipulating Fat; Pathway Also Explains Stress-induced Weight Gain

In the paper, the Georgetown researchers describe a mechanism they found by which stress activates weight gain in mice, and they say this pathway -- which they were able to manipulate -- may explain why people who are chronically stressed gain more weight than they should based on the calories they consume.

The key to the process that was found is a peptide (small protein) neurotransmitter called neuropeptide Y (NPY). NPY is produced under conditions of stress, as a by-product of the "fight-or-flight" response mediated by the sympathetic nervous system. An animal under conditions of chronic stress will have higher levels of NPY. The hormone was discovered 25 years ago, and earlier research indicates that it acts in the brain to increase appetite. (Although other aspects of the response may suppress appetite, which is why some overly stressed people may be emaciated.) The appetite-suppressing hormone leptin acts by inhibiting the activity of neurons that contain NPY.

What the new research found, however, is that, more importantly, NPY, acting outside the brain in adipose tissue, also alters an animal's metabolism to increase storage of fat:

As part of the study, Zukowska and her team examined the effect of several forms of chronic stress that mice in the wilderness can encounter, such as exposure for an hour a day over a two-week period to standing in a puddle of cold water or to an aggressive alpha mouse, and they conducted the experiments in combination with a regular diet or with a high-fat, high-sugar diet. Stressed animals fed a normal diet did not gain weight, but stressed mice given a high-fat diet did. In fact, the researchers found these mice put on more weight than expected given the calories they were consuming.

"They gained twice as much fat as would be expected, and it was all in their belly area," Kuo said. Stressed versus non-stressed animals ate the same amount of food, but the stressed animals processed it differently, she said, explaining, "the novel finding here is that NPY works on fat tissue, not in the brain."

In part, the research showed that NPY experimentally delivered in a mouse activated a G-protein coupled receptor called (naturally) a neuropeptide Y2 receptor (Y2R). (This is just one of 5 known NPY receptors.) Activation of Y2R was observed to promote storage of fat in adipose tissue:

[The] pathway involves two players -- a neurotransmitter (neuropeptide Y, or NPY) and the receptor (neuropeptide Y2 receptor, or Y2R) it activates in two types of cells in the fat tissue: endothelial cells lining blood vessels and fat cells themselves. In order to add fat selectively to the mice they tested, researchers injected NPY into a specific area. The researchers found that both NPY and Y2R are activated during stress, leading to apple-shape obesity and metabolic syndrome.

So NPY can lead to increased fat storage. But the converse is, happily, also true: blocking the NPY receptor shrinks fat:

Both the weight gain and metabolic syndrome, however, were prevented by administration of Y2R blocker into the abdominal fat.

Metabolic syndrome, you recall, comprises several undesirable elements, such as hyperglycemia, high blood pressure, central obesity, decreased HDL cholesterol, and elevated triglycerides. All of these can lead to more serious health problems, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. So there is the possibility that blocking Y2R could be beneficial to humans:

"We are hopeful that these findings might eventually lead to control of metabolic syndrome, which is a huge health issue for many Americans," [the study's senior author, Zofia Zukowska] said. "Decreasing fat in the abdomen of the mice we studied reduced the fat in their liver and skeletal muscles, and also helped to control insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, blood pressure and inflammation. Blocking Y2R might work the same way in humans, but much study will be needed to prove that."

Another account of this research reports expressions of optimism for development of human drugs to control stress-induced health problems:

Stress can be fattening, study finds

Mary F. Dallman of UC San Francisco said in an editorial in the same journal: "A large gap in our understanding of how chronic stressors lead to abdominal obesity has been filled…. Their results were remarkable and have profound implications for new drug development."

But it's not a sure thing. There is another hormone, called PYY, Pancreatic Peptide YY, or Pancreatic Peptide YY_3-36. PYY is structurally similar to NPY and in fact can activate some NPY receptors. It has been found to decrease appetite when it activates NPY receptors in the brain. At least two biotech companies (Amylin and Nastech) have investigated using PYY directly as a drug to induce weight loss. So far this effort has had only mixed results.

Here's another report on the research discussed above: How we can stop stress from making us obese. And here's a blog post that raises some good questions about this research: Scientists Stressed About Weight Loss.

Apart from the effects of NPY, chronic stress can cause a variety of health problems besides weight gain, obesity, and their knock-on effects. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford has done copious research into the ill effects of chronic stress. He points out that the fight-or-flight response of animals in the wild, which is activated during periods of acute danger (predators), and is adaptive in those circumstances, can turn harmful when stress is chronic, as happens frequently with primates such as humans:

Why Do Humans And Primates Get More Stress-related Diseases Than Other Animals?

Why do humans and their primate cousins get more stress-related diseases than any other member of the animal kingdom? The answer, says Stanford University neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, is that people, apes and monkeys are highly intelligent, social creatures with far too much spare time on their hands.

"Primates are super smart and organized just enough to devote their free time to being miserable to each other and stressing each other out," he said. "But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, you're going to compromise your health. So, essentially, we've evolved to be smart enough to make ourselves sick."

Tags: stress, obesity, weight gain, neuropeptide Y