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Dopamine drives food craving during pregnancy

Nature Metabolism volume 4, pages 410–411 (2022)Cite this article

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Although food-craving episodes during pregnancy are common in humans, the neural, cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie these eating bouts remain unknown. New work points to dopamine receptor D2-expressing neurons of the reward system as critical mediators of compulsive feeding during pregnancy.

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Fig. 1: Pregnancy-associated adaptations of the DA reward system can drive food craving.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Paris, CNRS, Unité de Biologie Fonctionnelle et Adaptative, F-75013, Paris, France

    Serge Luquet & Giuseppe Gangarossa

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  1. Serge Luquet
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  2. Giuseppe Gangarossa
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Correspondence to Serge Luquet or Giuseppe Gangarossa.

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Luquet, S., Gangarossa, G. Dopamine drives food craving during pregnancy. Nat Metab 4, 410–411 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00555-3

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