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Nutritional Neurosciences

Fos-Positive Neurons Are Increased in the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract and Decreased in the Ventromedial Hypothalamus and Amygdala by a High-Protein Diet in Rats

UMR INRA 914 Physiologie de la Nutrition et du Comportement Alimentaire, Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, F75231 PARIS Cedex 05, France and ^* Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616

¹To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tome{at}inapg.fr.

Transition from a normal- (NP) to a high-protein (HP) diet induces a rapid depression in food intake and a progressive but incomplete return to the initial intake during the succeeding days. The aim of this study was to determine which CNS regions are involved in the HP diet–induced satiety in rats. Brains were collected from 3 groups of adult rats after habituation to an NP diet (21 d), during the transition phase to a HP diet (2 d), or after habituation to the HP diet (21 d). Fos expression was measured in several brain areas that are involved in the control of food intake (solitary tract nucleus, anterior piriform cortex, lateral hypothalamus, arcuate nucleus, posterior para ventricular nucleus, medio ventral hypothalamus, dorso medial hypothalamus, amygdala, and accumbens nucleus). Changes occurred in the majority of these regions during the transition period from the NP diet to the HP diet. After habituation to the HP diet, significant changes in Fos expression were restricted to an increase in the nucleus of the solitary tract and a decrease in the ventromedial hypothalamus and the cortex of the amygdala. Considering the functional characteristics of these areas, the present results suggest that the vagus nerve conveys the information relative to the quantity of protein ingested, that hypothalamic sites regulate food intake and may alter sympathetic nervous system activity, and that higher brain functions such as memory processing by the limbic system or food reward system are involved in the HP diet–induced satiety in rats.

KEY WORDS: • brain • vagus nerve • satiety • protein

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				R. Faipoux, D. Tome, S. Gougis, N. Darcel, and G. Fromentin Proteins Activate Satiety-Related Neuronal Pathways in the Brainstem and Hypothalamus of Rats J. Nutr., June 1, 2008; 138(6): 1172 - 1178. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]