Exercise and the Brain: Fight Against Juvenile Obesity

描述（由申请人提供）：肥胖症的患病率已增长到流行病的比例，并已与严重的健康风险。为了充分治疗肥胖症的发展，首先必须了解肥胖症是如何发展的，涉及哪些神经和生理底物，以及外部因素如何影响它，这些研究的目的是使用饮食诱导的肥胖大鼠模型，以评估在肥胖症发展的关键青少年时期运动的神经和生理影响。具体而言，这些研究将评估幼年大鼠接受高脂肪饮食并自由使用转轮时食物摄入、体重和体重防御的变化，并将跟踪能量稳态的这些方面直至成年。该模型将模拟食用高脂肪饮食并参加常规活动的儿童的肥胖发作。此外，这些研究将重点关注饮食诱导大鼠的已知神经功能缺陷，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稳态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.