Innervation of skeletal muscle by leptin receptor-containing neurons
Open accessAbstract
In addition to suppressing food intake, leptin reduces body adiposity by altering metabolism within peripheral tissues such as adipose tissue and muscle. Recent work indicates that leptin action within the brain is sufficient to promote glucose uptake and increase fat oxidation within skeletal muscle, and that these effects are dependent on the sympathetic nervous system. To identify neuronal circuits through which leptin impacts skeletal muscle metabolism, we used LepRb-GFP reporter mice in combination with muscle-specific injection of an mRFP-expressing pseudorabies virus (PRV), which acts as a transsynaptic retrograde tracer. Consistent with previous observations in the rat, muscle-specific PRV injection lead to labeling within multiple areas of the hypothalamus and brainstem. However, the only areas in which PRV and LepRb colocalization was detected were within the brainstem nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) and the hypothalamic retrochiasmatic area. Within the NTS 28.5+/-9.4% of PRV-positive neurons contained LepRb-GFP, while in the RCH 37+/-1.7% of PRV neurons also contained LepRb. In summary, these data clearly implicate the NTS and RCH as key sites through which brain leptin impacts skeletal muscle, and as such provide an anatomical framework within which to interpret physiological data indicating that leptin acts in the brain to influence metabolism within skeletal muscle.
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The NTS and retrochiasmatic area (RCh) are key sites whereby leptin action in the brain activates autonomic relays that affect skeletal muscle.
“these data implicate that the NTS and RCh are key sites whereby leptin action in the brain activates autonomic relays that affect skeletal muscle.”
From Leptin and the Central Nervous System Control of Glucose Metabolism (2011) · cites this paper as [3]
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- Authors
- Babic, T., Purpera, M. N., Banfield, B. W., Berthoud, H.-R., & Morrison, C. D.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Pennington Biomedical Research Center (US)
- Queen's University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Morrison, Christopher D.
- Venue
- Brain Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-07
- Volume
- 1345
- Pages
- 146-155
- ISSN
- 0006-8993 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2897939
- OpenAlex
- W1979944240
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Brain Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (Grant P20-RR021945)
- Metabolic and Genomics Core Facilities at PBRC (NIH P20-RR021945)
- COBRE (NIH 1P30-DK072476)
- CNRU
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Adipokines, Inflammation, and Metabolic Diseases
- Keywords
- leptin, leptin receptor, skeletal muscle innervation, nucleus tractus solitarius, retrochiasmatic area, hypothalamus, brainstem, sympathetic nervous system, muscle glucose uptake, fat oxidation, muscle metabolism, neural circuits
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain Stem, Cell Count, Female, Genetic Vectors, Hypothalamus, Immunohistochemistry, Male, Mice, Transgenic, Neural Pathways, Neurons, Photomicrography, Solitary Nucleus, Muscle, Skeletal, Microscopy, Confocal, Green Fluorescent Proteins, Mice, Receptors, Leptin, Neuronal Tract-Tracers
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