Lateral parabrachial nucleus astrocytes control food intake




Mishra, Devesh; Richard, Jennifer E.; Maric, Ivana; Shevchouk, Olesya T.; Börchers, Stina; Eerola, Kim; Krieger, Jean-Philippe; Skibicka, Karolina P.

PublisherFrontiers Media

2024

Frontiers in Endocrinology

Frontiers in Endocrinology

1389589

15

1664-2392

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2024.1389589

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2024.1389589

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/454751048



Food intake behavior is under the tight control of the central nervous system. Most studies to date focus on the contribution of neurons to this behavior. However, although previously overlooked, astrocytes have recently been implicated to play a key role in feeding control. Most of the recent literature has focused on astrocytic contribution in the hypothalamus or the dorsal vagal complex. The contribution of astrocytes located in the lateral parabrachial nucleus (lPBN) to feeding behavior control remains poorly understood. Thus, here, we first investigated whether activation of lPBN astrocytes affects feeding behavior in male and female rats using chemogenetic activation. Astrocytic activation in the lPBN led to profound anorexia in both sexes, under both ad-libitum feeding schedule and after a fasting challenge. Astrocytes have a key contribution to glutamate homeostasis and can themselves release glutamate. Moreover, lPBN glutamate signaling is a key contributor to potent anorexia, which can be induced by lPBN activation. Thus, here, we determined whether glutamate signaling is necessary for lPBN astrocyte activation-induced anorexia, and found that pharmacological N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blockade attenuated the food intake reduction resulting from lPBN astrocyte activation. Since astrocytes have been shown to contribute to feeding control by modulating the feeding effect of peripheral feeding signals, we further investigated whether lPBN astrocyte activation is capable of modulating the anorexic effect of the gut/brain hormone, glucagon like peptide -1, as well as the orexigenic effect of the stomach hormone - ghrelin, and found that the feeding effect of both signals is modulated by lPBN astrocytic activation. Lastly, we found that lPBN astrocyte activation-induced anorexia is affected by a diet-induced obesity challenge, in a sex-divergent manner. Collectively, current findings uncover a novel role for lPBN astrocytes in feeding behavior control.


The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Swedish Research Council (2018–00660 to KS) and the National Institutes of Health (R01DK129321 to KS).


Last updated on 2025-27-01 at 19:19