Obesity is today one of the commonest of life-threatening diseases in developed countries and generally results from an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Although there is increasing evidence for a genetic basis of obesity in some clinical syndromes, this seems to be the cause only in a limited ...

OBJECTIVE: ob/ob mice have increased sensitivity to many of leptin's effects. The primary objective of this experiment was to determine whether ob/ob mice demonstrated increased sensitivity to leptin-induced adipose tissue apoptosis. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Fifteen-week-old female ob/ob and Ob/? mice received 0 (saline), 2.5, or 10 microg/d leptin for ...

Obesity has become an increasingly prevalent public health problem and represents the complex interaction of genetic, developmental, behavioral and environmental influences. Although rare, the study of syndromic forms of obesity provides insight into underlying molecular and physiological mechanisms by which adiposity is regulated through food intake, energy expenditure and partitioning ...

Leptin deficiency has been associated with extreme obesity and hyperphagia in rodents and humans. A rare genetic disorder in humans yields the absence of the hormone leptin, extreme obesity, and a ravenous appetite. Reports on these rare cases have indicated that therapy using leptin injections can yield significant weight loss ...

The present paper reports on results obtained as part of the economics module of the LIPGENE project. It reviews recent trends in obesity in the fifteen member states of the EU (the member states before enlargement in 2004) and concludes that in 2002 for both adult men and women at ...

Herein, we report a small molecule MCH-R1 antagonist which demonstrates oral efficacy in chronic rodent models. Substituted phenyl biaryl urea derivatives were synthesized and evaluated as MCH-R1 antagonists for the treatment of obesity. The structure-activity relationship studies in this series resulted in identification of urea 1 as a potent and ...

This study investigated whether relatively automatic evaluations of food differ between situations and between obese people and lean controls. These evaluations were assessed in the affective priming paradigm (APP) -- a response latency based measure for associations. In Experiment 1, we either focused participants (33 obese and 26 lean controls) ...

The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) has promoted surveys in asthma and allergic diseases using standardized methodologies including validated questionnaires. Many items in the questionnaires have also been implied in the overweight and obesity etiology. To describe the factors associated with obesity in subjects of 6-7 ...

While there have been many studies in various species examining the mode of central leptin action on food intake, there is however a paucity of data in birds. We have, therefore, addressed this issue in broiler chickens because this strain was selected for high growth rate, hence high food intake. ...

The modern health media as well as the food and diet industries praise certain foods and food nutrients as being healthful while at the same time criticizing other foods and nutrients as promoters of obesity and disease. Do the categorical messages that much of the general public has assimilated concerning ...

Using an epidemiologic model of the interactions between environmental agents and human hosts to explain obesity, we explored food, medications, physical inactivity, toxins, and viruses as environmental agents that interact with a genetically programmed host to disturb energy balance and cause obesity. Large portion sizes, high fat intakes, easy access ...

The obesity epidemic is among the greatest public health challenges facing the modern world. Regarding dietary causes, most emphasis has been on changing patterns of fat and carbohydrate consumption. In contrast, the role of protein has largely been ignored, because (i) it typically comprises only approximately 15% of dietary energy, ...

Many peptides are synthesised and released from the gastrointestinal tract. Although their roles in the regulation of gastrointestinal function have been known for some time, it has become increasingly evident that they also influence eating behaviour. Peptide YY (PYY) is released postprandially from gastrointestinal L-cells with glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) ...

Leptin amplifies feeding inhibition and neural activation produced by either cholecystokinin or intragastric preloads, suggesting that leptin may increase the efficacy of gastrointestinal meal-related signals. To determine whether leptin would similarly potentiate the feeding inhibitory actions of another putative satiety peptide, we evaluated the effects of third ventricular leptin administration ...

We investigate whether leptin treatment to lactating rats affects food intake, body weight and leptin serum concentration and its anorectic effect on their adult offspring. Lactating rats were divided into 2 groups: Lep-single injected with recombinant rat leptin (8 microg/100 g of body weight, daily for the last 3 consecutive ...

Melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) is involved in regulation of food intake and energy homeostasis. Antagonists of the MCH receptor are expected to affect food intake and weight gain, making MCH-R1 an attractive target for obesity treatment. Herein, we report the discovery of a novel, orally active series of MCH-R1 antagonists ...

Intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of Neuromedin U (NMU), a hypothalamic neuropeptide, or leptin, an adipostat hormone released from adipose tissue, reduces food intake and increases energy expenditure. Leptin stimulates the release of NMU in vitro, and NMU expression is reduced in models of low or absent leptin. We investigated the role ...

There is an association between autonomic nervous system output and obesity. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates lipid metabolism and regulates food intake and, hence, body weight. Leptin, produced by adipocytes in proportion to their size, has been shown to directly stimulate the satiety center. In the experiment reported here, food ...

PURPOSE: To determine whether predictors of fat intake behavior were the same for normal-weight and obese WIC mothers when applying the PRECEDE-PROCEED model and to identify predictors for each group. DESIGN: Proportional stratified convenience sampling. SUBJECTS: Five hundred eighty-one nonpregnant, black and white normal-weight (n = 180) or obese (n ...

Energy expenditure (EE) is a major determinant of energy balance and body composition. The objectives of this paper were to review the contributing factors of the main components of daily EE (DEE) and the inter-individual variability in these components in non-obese (NOb), obese (Ob), and post-obese (POb) adolescents. Body composition ...

BACKGROUND: The decrease in leptin after energy restriction is a starvation signal to the brain. Several studies have found an association between this decrease and subjective appetite; however, no solid data are available on the acute decrease in fasting leptin concentration and subsequent caloric compensation. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to ...

Obesity now represents a modern epidemic in western society with major health and economic consequences. Unfortunately, previous pharmacological approaches to the treatment of obesity have been associated with life-threatening side effects and limited efficacy. Over recent years there has been a marked increase in our understanding of the physiological mechanisms ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Obesity is a major public health problem and substantially increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, cardiovascular, respiratory problems, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis and sleep apnoea, as well as certain cancers. The prevalence of obesity is rapidly increasing worldwide. However, for individuals weight is regulated ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychometric properties of the Food Craving Inventory [FCI; White, M. A., Whisenhunt, B. L., Williamson, D. A., Greenway, F. L., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2002). Development and validation of the food-craving inventory. Obesity Research, 10 (107-114)] in a group of obese patients with binge eating disorder ...

OBJECTIVES: In several Arctic countries, weight gain is very evident among the local populations and the percentages of overweight and obese persons are increasing rapidly. Since the development of overweight among the Arctic populations seems to coincide with the westernization of their diet and other life-style factors, it is tempting ...

Leptin and adiponectin play important physiological roles in regulating appetite, food intake, and energy balance and have pathophysiological roles in obesity and anorexia nervosa. To assess the relative contributions of day/night patterns in behaviors (sleep/wake cycle and food intake) and of the endogenous circadian pacemaker on observed day/night patterns of ...

The incidence of obesity in both adults and children is rising at a rapid rate in most developed countries, including in Australia. Some obese people are seeking to place the blame for their condition on the fast-food industry, as demonstrated by the recent litigation in the United States brought by ...

Two experiments are reported that used the affective priming paradigm (Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., & Kardess, F. R. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 229-238) to uncover associations with food at a relatively automatic level. Experiment 1 ...

Among the strategies suggested to face obesity epidemics there is also a mere reduction of only 100-200 kcal day, i.e. less mouthfuls of food and a little more walking every day. Are these proposals "simple and feasible" or, vice versa, "simplicistic and unrealistic" solutions? A possible source of such confusion ...

The sensory experience of food is a primary reinforcer of eating and overeating plays a major role in the development of human obesity. However, whether the sensory experience of a forthcoming meal and the associated physiological phenomena (cephalic phase response, expectation of reward), which prepare the organism for the ingestion ...

Hyperosmolality of ingested food causes excessive thermogenesis in humans. And when this heat does not find a way to dissipate or expelled from body it causes the blood circulatory system to build an insulator wall by depositing fat in aorta resulting in atherosclerosis. The mechanism of excessive thermogenesis is presently ...

The endocannabinoids are endogenous lipids capable of binding to both cannabinoid receptors (CB) CB1 and CB2. These receptors belong to the G protein-coupled family receptors and they were discovered while investigating the mode of action of ?(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol, a component of Cannabis sativa, to which they bind with high affinity. Among ...

Body weight is determined by the interaction of the genetic makeup of an individual and the environment in which that person is living. The control systems that regulate body weight are numerous and include signals from fat that travel to the hypothalamus where cognitive and internal signals are integrated. The ...

Obesity is an end result of the intricate interactions of biology, behavior, and environment. Recent hypotheses in the scientific community suggest the current obesity epidemic is being driven largely by environmental factors (e.g., high energy/high fat foods, fast food consumption, television watching, "super-sized" portions, etc.) rather than biological ones. Individuals ...

The aim of the study was to investigate the circannual rhythms of leptin and ghrelin in the blue fox, a variant of the endangered arctic fox, in relation to its seasonal cycles of body mass, adiposity and food intake. The effects of long-term fasting and exogenous melatonin treatment on these ...

We have studied the effects of chronic peripheral infusion of thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) and norepinephrine (NE) alone and together. Do these hormones additively affect energy balance and body weight similarly in obese animals? 20 obese (fa/fa) Zucker strain rats were studied. Food intake, body weight and resting metabolic rate ...

The global hegemony of the United States in the production and marketing of food, while a marvel of economic success, has contributed to the epidemic of obesity that is particularly afflicting children. So far the U.S. government has declined to regulate the aggressive ways in which food producers market high-energy, ...

Marijuana and cannabinoids have been shown to exert profound effects on hypothalamic regulatory functions and reproduction in both experimental animals and humans. Here we review the role of (endo)cannabinoids in the regulation of appetite and food intake. There is converging evidence that the hypothalamic endocannabinoid system changes after leptin treatment. ...

Convinced that morbid obesity was not due to food excess but rather to a metabolic disorder, we searched in the literature for data in favor of a metabolic disorder. We have found evidence in support of the thesis that the cause of morbid obesity is the inability to burn excessive ...

Despite dramatic fluctuations in calorie intake, animals maintain a very stable body weight. The reason is that energy intake and expenditure are precisely matched. Long-term regulation of energy balance is dependent on the coordination and interpretation of signals such as those given by insulin and leptin indicating sufficient long-term energy ...

Retinoic acid (RA) administration and chronic vitamin A supplementation were reported to inhibit adipose tissue leptin expression in rodents, but the impact of this effect on food intake and its relationship with changes of body adiposity was not analyzed. Here, we have studied the effects of RA administration at three ...

The rewarding effect produced by electrically stimulating certain sites in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) can be potentiated by food restriction and body weight loss in lean rats. Central leptin and insulin administration can suppress the rewarding impact of the stimulation. To determine whether there are additional peripheral signals that mediate ...

Previous studies have implicated acculturation to the US as a risk factor for unhealthy behaviors among Hispanic and Asian-American adolescents, including substance use, violence, and unsafe sex. This study examined the association between acculturation and obesity-related behaviors-physical activity and fast-food consumption-among 619 Asian-American and 1385 Hispanic adolescents in Southern California. ...

The new lifestyle in the modern world is causing a rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity and associated health problems. Increased availability of palatable and energy dense foods, combined with a lack of physical activity overpower a homeostatic regulatory system that evolved to survive periods of famine rather than ...

The increased incidence of obesity makes it imperative to understand the regulation of food intake and body weight. We review the signals that interact with the brain to control energy homeostasis, i.e. energy intake and expenditure. Three broad categories can be distinguished. Signals generated in the gastrointestinal tract during meals ...

Leptin inhibits food intake and lowers plasma insulin concentrations. This study was designed to determine whether leptin acts independent of food-intake regulation to affect meal-induced increases in plasma insulin concentrations. Leptin-deficient, Lep(ob)/Lep(ob) mice were administered 1 microg leptin intracerebroventricularly (ICV) or intraperitoneally. Food intake and plasma insulin concentrations of mice ...

Obesity has been described as the greatest current threat to human health. In order to design drugs to target obesity, it is essential to understand its physiology and pathophysiology. Several peptides synthesised in the gastrointestinal tract which affect food intake have been identified including ghrelin, cholecystokinin (CCK), glucagon-like peptide-1 (7-36) ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the role of television as tool for childhood obesity prevention. METHOD: Review of the available literature about the relationship between television and childhood obesity, eating habits and body shape perception. RESULTS: The reviewed studies showed the following: television watching replaces more vigorous activities; there is a positive ...

PURPOSE: Obesity accounts for approximately 300,000 deaths a year in the United States, and prevalence rates have been increasing over the past decade. The nutrition environment may be contributing to this epidemic. This study examined the relationship between fast food restaurants and obesity on a state-wide basis. DESIGN: A one-time ...

Recent data from Australia, the United States and Europe show increased self-reported energy intake associated with obesity, in contrast to earlier suggestions that the obesity epidemic has occurred despite minimal or no increase in per capita energy intake from food. The effect of increased energy intake is compounded by sedentary ...