Scientists at Pennington Biomedical Research Center have gained greater clarity in the brain regions and neurons that control metabolism, body temperature and energy use. Featured in the February edition of the journal Metabolism, Dr. Heike Münzberg-Gruening and a team of researchers discovered which chemicals influence the signals that control how much energy the body uses. In “Leptin Receptor Neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus require distinct neuronal subsets for thermogenesis and weight loss,” researchers laid out the pathways, chemicals, neurons and brain regions that are activated.
In previous research, Dr. Münzberg-Gruening and her team identified that leptin receptors, or Lepr, control the metabolic effects of Leptin. These receptors are neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus, or DMH,…