Diet, Obesity and Stress

描述(申请人提供)：肥胖是一个主要的公共健康问题，在美国有22%的成年人受到影响。尽管公共卫生努力与肥胖作斗争，但随着与肥胖相关的医疗成本的增加，肥胖症的发病率仍在继续增加。肥胖增加了心血管疾病和非胰岛素依赖型糖尿病的易感性，并与抑郁和焦虑有关。慢性压力在肥胖的发展中起着一定的作用，也与抑郁症和焦虑症有关。此外，肥胖者通常会对应激反应的下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺(HPA)轴的活动产生干扰。因此，文献支持压力、与压力相关的疾病和体重调节失调之间的密切联系。为了确定慢性压力和肥胖之间相互作用的性质，这项建议将使用高脂饮食诱导肥胖(DIO)和慢性可变压力(CVS)暴露的大鼠模型来解决三个主要假设：(1)长期食用高脂饮食导致肥胖的大鼠的慢性应激加剧；(2)短期食用高脂饮食会增强慢性应激反应；以及(3)长期食用高脂饮食导致的肥胖会减弱慢性应激反应。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Obesity is a major public health problem affecting 22% of adults in the United States. Despite public health efforts to combat obesity, it continues to increase in incidence along with obesity-related health costs. Obesity increases susceptibility for cardiovascular disease and non-insulin dependent diabetes, and has been associated with depression and anxiety. Chronic stress plays a role in the development of obesity, and has also been linked with depression and anxiety disorders. Moreover, obese individuals often have disruptions in the activity of the stress-responsive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Thus, the literature supports strong links between stress, stress-related illnesses and the dysregulation of body weight. To determine the nature of the interactions between chronic stress and obesity, this proposal will use a rat model of high fat diet-induced obesity (DIO) combined with chronic variable stress (CVS) exposure to address three principal hypotheses: (1) chronic stress potentiates obesity in rats consuming high fat diet; (2) chronic stress responses are potentiated by short term consumption of high fat diet; and (3) chronic stress responses are attenuated by obesity induced by long term consumption of high fat diet.