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Melanocortin 4 Receptor and Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Brain Areas Involved in Food Intake

BACKGROUND: The melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) is involved in the regulation of homeostatic energy balance by the hypothalamus. Recent reports showed that MC4R can also control the motivation for food in association with a brain reward system, such as dopamine. We investigated the expression levels...

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Autores principales: Yoon, Ye Ran, Baik, Ja-Hyun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Korean Endocrine Society 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4722414/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26790386
http://dx.doi.org/10.3803/EnM.2015.30.4.576
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author Yoon, Ye Ran
Baik, Ja-Hyun
author_facet Yoon, Ye Ran
Baik, Ja-Hyun
author_sort Yoon, Ye Ran
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) is involved in the regulation of homeostatic energy balance by the hypothalamus. Recent reports showed that MC4R can also control the motivation for food in association with a brain reward system, such as dopamine. We investigated the expression levels of MC4R and the dopamine D2 receptor (D2R), which is known to be related to food rewards, in both the hypothalamus and brain regions involved in food rewards. METHODS: We examined the expression levels of D2R and MC4R by dual immunofluorescence histochemistry in hypothalamic regions and in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), the central amygdala, and the ventral tegmental area of transgenic mice expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein under the control of the D2R gene. RESULTS: In the hypothalamic area, significant coexpression of MC4R and D2R was observed in the arcuate nucleus. We observed a significant coexpression of D2R and MC4R in the BNST, which has been suggested to be an important site for food reward. CONCLUSION: We suggest that MC4R and D2R function in the hypothalamus for control of energy homeostasis and that within the brain regions related with rewards, such as the BNST, the melanocortin system works synergistically with dopamine for the integration of food motivation in the control of feeding behaviors.
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spelling pubmed-47224142016-01-27 Melanocortin 4 Receptor and Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Brain Areas Involved in Food Intake Yoon, Ye Ran Baik, Ja-Hyun Endocrinol Metab (Seoul) Original Article BACKGROUND: The melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) is involved in the regulation of homeostatic energy balance by the hypothalamus. Recent reports showed that MC4R can also control the motivation for food in association with a brain reward system, such as dopamine. We investigated the expression levels of MC4R and the dopamine D2 receptor (D2R), which is known to be related to food rewards, in both the hypothalamus and brain regions involved in food rewards. METHODS: We examined the expression levels of D2R and MC4R by dual immunofluorescence histochemistry in hypothalamic regions and in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), the central amygdala, and the ventral tegmental area of transgenic mice expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein under the control of the D2R gene. RESULTS: In the hypothalamic area, significant coexpression of MC4R and D2R was observed in the arcuate nucleus. We observed a significant coexpression of D2R and MC4R in the BNST, which has been suggested to be an important site for food reward. CONCLUSION: We suggest that MC4R and D2R function in the hypothalamus for control of energy homeostasis and that within the brain regions related with rewards, such as the BNST, the melanocortin system works synergistically with dopamine for the integration of food motivation in the control of feeding behaviors. Korean Endocrine Society 2015-12 2015-12-31 /pmc/articles/PMC4722414/ /pubmed/26790386 http://dx.doi.org/10.3803/EnM.2015.30.4.576 Text en Copyright © 2015 Korean Endocrine Society http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Yoon, Ye Ran
Baik, Ja-Hyun
Melanocortin 4 Receptor and Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Brain Areas Involved in Food Intake
title Melanocortin 4 Receptor and Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Brain Areas Involved in Food Intake
title_full Melanocortin 4 Receptor and Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Brain Areas Involved in Food Intake
title_fullStr Melanocortin 4 Receptor and Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Brain Areas Involved in Food Intake
title_full_unstemmed Melanocortin 4 Receptor and Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Brain Areas Involved in Food Intake
title_short Melanocortin 4 Receptor and Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Brain Areas Involved in Food Intake
title_sort melanocortin 4 receptor and dopamine d2 receptor expression in brain areas involved in food intake
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4722414/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26790386
http://dx.doi.org/10.3803/EnM.2015.30.4.576
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