Hunger, thirst, sex, and sleep: How the brain controls our passions

Young J (2016) Hunger, thirst, sex, and sleep: How the brain controls our passions. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Summary: The author reviews what has been learned about feeding, “Other clever techniques have confirmed that leptin specifically acts upon NPY-containing neurons to depress feeding. One technique is to infuse the hypothalamus with a form of NPY that is linked to a poisonous molecule called saporin. Neurons that normally contain NPY usually release it into their surroundings and then specifically take it back up into the cell so that it is not wasted. When NPY-containing neurons are tricked into taking up NPY linked to saporin, they die but leave other adjacent neurons completely unaffected. Rats treated in this way become completely insensitive to the feeding-restraining effects of leptin because they lack NPY-containing neurons in the arcuate nucleus.”

Related Products: Blank-SAP (Cat. #IT-21), NPY-SAP (Cat. #IT-28)

See Also:

• Bugarith K et al. Basomedial hypothalamic injections of neuropeptide Y conjugated to saporin selectively disrupt hypothalamic controls of food intake. Endocrinology 146(3):1179-1191, 2005.