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NIDDK Workshop Focuses on Brain and Adipocyte
Participants at the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) workshop, "The Brain and the Adipocyte: Integrating Diverse Signaling Pathways" discussed advances in the control of energy homeostasis, emphasizing the potential regulatory feedback systems between the brain and adipose tissue.
Workshop topics included the use of positional cloning techniques. Several NIH-supported investigators used this technique to make major discoveries in the molecular endocrinology of obesity during the last 3 years. Positional cloning helped researchers identify the signaling pathway between the hypothalamus and brown and white adipocytes in obese rodents. This pathway appears to be key in regulating food intake and energy balance in humans and rodents.
The number and diversity of disciplines involved in significant discoveries related to controlling energy balance prompted NIDDK to organize this conference. Future work on how the regulatory axis controls food intake and energy balance has implications for treating eating disorders and wasting syndromes such as those associated with AIDS, cancer, and severe infections.