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BRAIN'S APPETITE STIMULANT MAY BE KEY TO WEIGHT GAIN.


Byline: Theresa Tamkins Medical Tribune News Service

In yet another discovery that may help scientists unravel the mystery of appetite, eating and obesity, diabetes researchers have found a brain chemical that appears to regulate feeding and play a role in weight gain - this time by stimulating appetite.

A team from the Joslin Diabetes Center Joslin Diabetes Center is the world’s largest and most respected diabetes research center, diabetes clinic, and provider of diabetes education. It is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts.  and Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a hospital in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill. With Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two founding members of Partners HealthCare.  in Boston reported that the compound, called melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH See Intel Hub Architecture. ), is found in higher levels in the brains of obese mice than in lean mice.

When MCH was injected into normal mice, the animals consumed about twice as many calories as usual, said lead study author Dr. Eleftheria Maratos-Flier.

Last year, the biggest news in obesity research was the isolation of a natural hormone - called leptin Leptin
A protein hormone that affects feeding behavior and hunger in humans. At present it is thought that obesity in humans may result in part from insensitivity to leptin.
 - that suppresses appetite by interacting with receptors in the brain.

While the function of MCH is unknown, it is produced in the hypothalamus hypothalamus (hī'pəthăl`əməs), an important supervisory center in the brain, rich in ganglia, nerve fibers, and synaptic connections. It is composed of several sections called nuclei, each of which controls a specific function. , the area of the brain that is thought to be the control center for weight regulation, and therefore must be viewed as a "potentially important" regulator of weight gain, Maratos-Flier noted in the report, published in the journal Nature.

"In theory, if this peptide turned out to have a powerful effect on food intake in other studies, blocking the effect with drugs may reduce food intake," said Dr. Rudolph Leibel, head of the human behavior and metabolism laboratory at the Rockefeller University in New York. "Or it may be used to increase food intake in people who are anorexic an·o·rex·ic
adj.
Relating to or suffering from anorexia nervosa.



ano·rex
."

While last year's discovery of leptin at first was thought to be a "magic bullet" that could combat obesity, "what we are now seeing is the discovery of a whole series of additional proteins or genes that influence food intake and metabolism in very complex ways," he said.
COPYRIGHT 1996 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1996, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Title Annotation:L.A. LIFE
Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Mar 21, 1996
Words:295
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