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Acute and chronic administration of melanin-concentrating hormone enhances food intake and body weight in Wistar and Sprague–Dawley rats

International Journal of Obesity volume 26, pages 1289–1295 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

AIM: Although melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is believed to be an important regulator of feeding behavior, both its acute and chronic effects on food intake as well as its interaction with other brain peptides involved in the control of appetite remain unclear. Therefore, the acute effects of MCH on food intake and the chronic effect of MCH on food intake and the gene expression of various hypothalamic peptides involved in the control of appetite were studied in rats.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Either the acute or the continuous intraventricular infusion of MCH for 12 days stimulated feeding in both Wistar or Sprague–Dawley rats. Removal of the hypothalamus at the end of the chronic infusion studies allowed measurement of the expression of mRNAs encoding for MCH, neuropeptide Y (NPY), orexin, agouti gene-related peptide, cocaine and amphetamine-related transcript and neurotensin–neuropeptides involved in the control of appetite. Chronic intraventricular infusion of MCH activated only NPY mRNA synthesis in Sprague–Dawley rats. The increase in food intake in response to MCH in Sprague–Dawley rats did not appear to be due to the release of NPY since combination studies demonstrated consistently additive effects of the two peptides on food intake at maximum or near maximum doses.

CONCLUSIONS: These results strongly suggest that MCH is an orexigenic peptide involved in the control of both short- and long term food intake in satiated rats and further indicate that the MCH pathway is a possible target for the control of food intake and obesity.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank E Douillet, J Staczeck and O Tondu of the Division of Metabolic Diseases at the Servier Research Institute for their expertise in contributing to the food intake studies. This work was supported in part by grants from the Servier Research Institute, the Danone Institute and CNRS to F Presse, C Ortola and JL Nahon.

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Author notes

  1. O Della-Zuana and F Presse: Both authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Metabolic Diseases, Servier Research Institute, Suresnes, France

    O Della-Zuana & N Levens

  2. Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, CNRS UPR, Valbonne, France

    F Presse, C Ortola & JL Nahon

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  1. O Della-Zuana
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  2. F Presse
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  3. C Ortola
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  4. J Duhault
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  5. JL Nahon
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  6. N Levens
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Correspondence to N Levens.

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Della-Zuana, O., Presse, F., Ortola, C. et al. Acute and chronic administration of melanin-concentrating hormone enhances food intake and body weight in Wistar and Sprague–Dawley rats. Int J Obes 26, 1289–1295 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802079

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