Regulation of the Reproductive and Stress Axes by the Metabolic Signal, Leptin.

[摘要]PI = THOMPSON, ROBERT C.代谢信号对生殖轴和应激轴的调节，瘦素。食物供应影响生殖功能。理解以及许多其他身体功能的关键在于我们理解大脑如何收集食物可用性信息的能力。最近，一种名为瘦素的激素的发现填补了我们对食物供应如何控制生殖的理解上的一个重大空白。大多数动物的血瘦素浓度在饭后增加，向大脑报告饱腹感信号。大脑究竟是如何感知像瘦素这样的饱腹感信号的，人们才刚刚开始了解。汤普森博士将确定大脑是如何感知瘦素的，更具体地说，是如何将这种瘦素信息传递给控制生殖功能的大脑中枢的。在这个研究计划中测试的一个假设是，关于食物供应变化的信息是通过参与感知“压力”的大脑中心传递给生殖大脑中心的。当来自不同背景的研究证明了两点时，这个想法就产生了。首先，压力或压力经历对生殖系统有负面影响。其次，在食物供应非常少的情况下，控制压力的大脑系统被激活。因此，在食物供应非常短缺的情况下，压力很大。然而，很少有人知道这些应激系统的激活是否是将食物供应严重减少的信息传递给生殖系统的途径。这将在本项目中进行研究。此外，除瘦素外，还有许多分子充当“食物信号”。另一个信号是葡萄糖。不同的食物信号是通过相同的途径传递给生殖系统，还是每种食物信号都有不同的途径？用类似的逻辑，是不是所有紧张的情况或条件都受到食物信号的影响？汤普森博士将探索这些问题，在这项工作中获得的信息将用于进一步了解大脑如何利用食物信息来控制生殖功能。

ABSTRACT IBN 97-28032 PI = THOMPSON, ROBERT C. Regulation of Reproductive and Stress Axes by the Metabolic Signal, Leptin Food availability affects reproductive function. Key to understanding as well as many other bodily functions, lies in our ability to understand how the brain gathers information on the availability of food. A major gap in our understanding of how food availability controls reproduction was filled recently with the discovery of a hormone called leptin. Blood leptin concentrations increase after meals in most animals reporting to the brain a satiety signal. Exactly how the brain senses these satiety signals like leptin is only beginning to be understood. Dr. Thompson will determine how the brain senses leptin and more specifically, communicates this leptin information to brain centers that control reproductive function. One hypothesis tested in this research plan is that information about altered food availability is relayed to the reproductive brain centers via brain centers that are involved in sensing "stress". This idea arose when researches from different backgrounds demonstrated two points. First, stress or stressful experiences have negative effects upon reproductive systems. Second, during conditions where food availability is very low, brain systems known to control stress are activated. Thus, conditions where food is in very short supply are stressful. However, little is known if the activation of these stress systems is the path by which information concerning severely reduced food availability is communicated to reproductive systems. This will be examined in this project. Additionally, many molecules in addition to leptin serve as "food signals". One other signal is glucose. Do different food signals communicate to the reproductive system using the same pathways or are there unique pathways for each food signal? Using similar logic, are all stressful situations or conditions influence d by food signals? Dr. Thompson will explore these questions and information developed in this work will be used to further understand how the brain uses food information to control reproductive function.