WIKIMEDIA, SUNHOLMExperiments in mice find that obesity reinforces a sedentary lifestyle. According to a December 29 study in Cell, obese mice were less active due to changes in their dopamine receptors—specifically, a drop in activity in DR2 receptors in the brain’s striatum, which plays a role in motor control.
“There’s a common belief that obese animals don’t move as much because carrying extra body weight is physically disabling,” coauthor Alexxai Kravitz of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases said in a press release. “But our findings suggest that assumption doesn't explain the whole story.”
Kravitz and colleagues fed mice either a standard diet or a high-fat diet for 18 weeks, and then examined their dopamine signaling pathways. They found that the least active mice had less-active DR2 dopamine receptors in the striatum. Then they genetically engineered mice to have the same DR2 deficiency, and found that even those that remained lean engaged in less physical activity than other mice. Together, the findings suggest that the DR2 deficiency may account for ...
