JUSTIN HEWLETT, MNHS MULTIMEDIA, MONASH UNIVERSITYInsulin and leptin activate appetite-suppressing proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in the mouse brain that promote the conversion of “bad” white fat to “good” beige fat, investigators from Monash University in Australia and their colleagues showed in Cell this week (January 15).
“The authors show that [insulin and leptin] directly interact in the brain to produce nervous-system signaling both to white and brown adipose tissue,” said Jan Nedergaard, a professor of physiology at Stockholm University who was not involved in the work. “This is a nice demonstration of how the acute and chronic energy status talks to the thermogenic tissues.”
Study coauthor Garron Dodd of Monash suggested his team’s results could have implications for treating humans. The findings, he said, are “really exciting as, perhaps, resistance to the actions of leptin and insulin in POMC neurons is a key feature underlying obesity in people.”
WIKIMEDIA, BIGGISHBENRagon Institute researchers investigating the effects of vaccines that exclusively elicit a T helper cell response in mice found that, once infected with lymphocytic cytomegalovirus, the animals suffered uncontrolled inflammation, multiple organ failure, and death. Their results were published in Science this week (January 15).
