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Science 12 October 1973:
Vol. 182. no. 4108, pp. 166 - 169
DOI: 10.1126/science.182.4108.166
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Articles

Overeating and Obesity from Damage to a Noradrenergic System in the Brain

J. Eric Ahlskog 1 and Bartley G. Hoebel 1

1 Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

A discrete, ascending fiber system that supplies the hypothalamus with most of its noradrenergic terminals was destroyed at midbrain level, both electrolytically and with local injections of 6-hydroxydopamine, a destructive agent specific for catecholaminergic neurons. The result was hyperphagia leading to obesity. Fluorescence histochemical analysis showed that loss of noradrenergic terminals in ventral bundle termination areas such as the hypothalamus was necessary for hyperphagia. Damage to dorsal bundle or dopaminergic projections was not. Prior treatment with desmethylimipramine to selectively block uptake of 6-hydroxydopamine into noradrenergic neurons prevented both hyperphagia and loss of norepinephrine fluorescence. The lesions that produced hyperphagia also reduced the potency of d-amphetamine as an appetite suppressant. It is concluded that this noradrenergic bundle normally mediates suppression of feeding, thereby influences body weight, and serves as a substrate for d-amphetamine-induced loss of appetite.


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Interacting Appetite-Regulating Pathways in the Hypothalamic Regulation of Body Weight.
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The forebrain is not essential for sympathoadrenal hyperglycemic response to glucoprivation.
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Increased Norepinephrine Levels and Decreased Dopamine-{beta}-Hydroxylase Activity in Primary Autism.
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Selective blockade of hypothalamic hyperphagia and obesity in rats by serotonin-depleting midbrain lesions.
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Hyperphagia and obesity following serotonin depletion by intraventricular p-chlorophenylalanine.
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Hyperphagia and increased growth in rats after intraventricular injection of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine.
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Hupothalamic hyperphagia: dissociation from hyperphagia following destruction of noradrenergic neurons.
J. Ahlskog, P. Randall, and B. Hoebel (1975)
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D. J. Cohen, B. A. Shaywitz, W. T. Johnson, and M. Bowers Jr. (1974)
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