The Melanocortinergic Pathway Is Rapidly Recruited by Emotional Stress and Contributes to Stress-Induced Anorexia and Anxiety-Like Behavior
Open accessAbstract
Neurons producing melanocortin receptor agonist, alpha-MSH derived from proopiomelanocortin, and antagonist, agouti-related protein, are known to be sensitive to metabolic stress such as food deprivation and glucoprivation. However, how these neurons respond to emotional/psychological stress remained to be elucidated. We report here that acute emotional stressors, i.e. restraint and forced swim, evoked mRNA expression of c-fos, a neuronal activation marker, in a high percentage of proopiomelanocortin neurons (up to 53% for restraint stress and 62% for forced swim), with marked variations along the rostro-caudal axis of the arcuate nucleus. In contrast, only a small population of agouti-related protein neurons in this brain region was activated. These neuronal activation patterns were correlated with behavioral reactions. Both stressors suppressed feeding and induced anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus-maze test, as reflected by a reduction in the percentage of entries and time spent in the open arms. Central pretreatment with SHU9119, a melanocortin receptor antagonist, dose dependently attenuated the anorectic and anxiogenic effects elicited by acute restraint or forced swim. These results indicate that the melancortinergic pathway can be rapidly recruited by acute emotional stress, and that activation of melanocortin signaling is involved in mediating stress-induced anorexia and anxiety.
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Neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus are activated by emotional stimuli.
“We and others have previously shown that neurons in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) of the hypothalamus are activated by emotional stimuli [16, 17].”
From Chronic unpredictable stress induces depression-related behaviors by suppressing AgRP neuron activity (2021) · cites this paper as [16]
AgRP neurons can respond rapidly to acute emotional stress.
“We have previously demonstrated that AgRP neurons can respond rapidly to acute emotional stress [16].”
From Chronic unpredictable stress induces depression-related behaviors by suppressing AgRP neuron activity (2021) · cites this paper as [16]
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- Authors
- Liu, J., Garza, J. C., Truong, H. V., Henschel, J., Zhang, W., & Lu, X.-Y.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (US)
- Venue
- Endocrinology
- Publisher
- The Endocrine Society
- Published
- 2007-11
- Volume
- 148
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 5531-5540
- ISSN
- 0013-7227 (ISSN-L)
- 1945-7170
- PMC
- PMC3708592
- OpenAlex
- W1977763506
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 3.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Endocrinology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH076929, R01MH073844)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuropeptides and Animal Physiology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Keywords
- emotional stress, stress-induced anorexia, anxiety-like behavior, proopiomelanocortin neurons, agouti-related protein, arcuate nucleus, Fos expression, restraint stress, forced swim test, SHU9119, feeding inhibition
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Anorexia, Anxiety, Behavior, Animal, Corticosterone, Male, Neurons, Pro-Opiomelanocortin, Restraint, Physical, Stress, Psychological, Swimming, Signal Transduction, Genes, fos, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Leptin, Gene Expression Profiling, Rats, Melanocortins, Agouti-Related Protein
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