Exercise and the Brain: Fight Against Juvenile Obesity

描述(申请人提供)：肥胖症的流行程度已经上升到流行的程度，并与严重的健康风险有关。为了开发适当的肥胖症治疗方法，首先必须了解肥胖症是如何发展的，涉及哪些神经和生理基础，以及外部因素如何影响肥胖。这些研究的目的是使用饮食诱导的肥胖大鼠模型来评估在肥胖发展的关键青少年时期运动对神经和生理的影响。具体地说，这些研究将评估当幼年大鼠被置于高脂肪饮食并自由使用跑轮时，食物摄入量、体重和体重防御的变化，这些能量平衡方面的变化将一直跟踪到成年。该模型将模拟食用高脂肪饮食并经常参加活动的儿童肥胖的发病过程。此外，这些研究将集中在饮食诱导的大鼠已知的神经缺陷以及运动如何逆转这些缺陷。这些研究的总体目标是了解运动如何影响能量平衡，以及运动如何有助于治疗人类肥胖。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The prevalence of obesity has grown to epidemic proportions and has been linked to severe health risks. In order for adequate treatments for obesity to be developed it must first be understood how obesity develops, what neural and physiological substrates are involved, and how external factors can influence it. The purpose of these studies is to use the diet-induced rat model of obesity to assess the neurological and physiological effects of exercise during the critical juvenile period of obesity development. Specifically, these studies will assess changes in food intake, body weight, and defense of body weight when juvenile rats are placed on a high fat diet and given free access to a running wheel and these aspects of energy homeostasis will be tracked through to adulthood. This model will mimic the onset of obesity in children who consume a high fat diet and participate in regular activity. In addition, these studies will focus on known neurological deficits in diet-induced rats and how exercise may serve to reverse these. The overall aim of these studies is to understand how exercise influences energy homeostasis and how exercise may serve to treat human obesity.