- Researchers investigated the neural pathways behind weight gain after dieting, often referred to as the “yo-yo effect”.
- In experiments in mice, they found that signaling between brain cells changes after a diet.
- They discovered that blocking a certain neural pathway led to less weight gain after these periods of calorie restriction.
- Further studies are needed to see how these findings translate to humans.
Dieting is the most common method for losing weight. However,
Studies also show that synaptic inputs to ARC neurons that control body weight change in response to food restriction.
Further research into how ARC neurons influence weight gain and food intake could aid the development of obesity treatments.
Recently, researchers examined how food restriction—or dieting—affects ARC neurons, and how this in turn affects weight gain.
They found that inhibiting neural pathways that activate these ARC neurons reduces weight gain after dieting in mice.
The study was published in
For the study, the researchers chose to study
To study these neurons, the researchers examined the brains of mice post-mortem. Some of the mice had fasted for 16 hours beforehand.
The researchers then used optogenetics, which activates cells using light, to stimulate brain regions known to signal to AgRP neurons.
They found that mice that fasted had more activity in a part of their hypothalamus known as the paraventricular…
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