"Neuron Connection between Fat and the Brain Visualized"

he hormone leptin, which is produced by fat cells, acts as a satiety signal to the brain, resulting in fat breakdown when levels are high. The hormone, present in proportion to the amount of fat tissue, is known to act on hypothalamic neurons in the brain to tell an animal when it's full and to kick-start the breakdown of fat. Now, for the first time, researchers have provided direct visual evidence that some sympathetic neurons from the brain indeed terminate within fat cells. "It's a real tour de force that combines really modern optogenetic and tissue clearing approaches that are being developed to understand the central nervous system [CNS] and are here applied to understand the neural action outside the CNS and in the body," said Paul Kenny, PhD, director of the Experimental Therapeutics Institute at The Mount Sinai Hospital

- Paul Kenny, PhD, Professor, Chair, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Experimental Therapeutics Institute, The Mount Sinai Hospital

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