ESPE Abstracts

Glial cells are the most abundant cell type in the CNS. Although they were originally thought to only play a supportive role for neurons, it is now clear that glial cells are involved in all aspects of brain function. Understanding how glia, and in particular astrocytes, tanycytes and microglia, participate in the neuroendocrine control of metabolic homeostasis has come to the forefront in recent years. This is largely due to the observation that high fat diet-induced hypothal...

Background: The GH/IGF-I axis is involved in metabolic control and studies suggest that IGF-I deficiency and subsequent changes in IGF-I signaling in brown adipose tissue (BAT) modifies its thermogenic capacity. Food restriction reduces thermogenic capacity in BAT, while leptin stimulates thermogenesis through uncoupling protein 1 (UCP-1) induction. Leptin and IGF-I maintain important crosstalk in different tissues, but whether these two hormones interact to r...

Background: Pregnancy associated plasma protein (PAPP)-A2 is an insulin-like growth factor (IGF) binding protein (BP) protease that regulates IGF-1 availability, affecting postnatal growth. We have recently reported the first mutations in human PAPP-A2 causing short stature and changes in bone size and mineral density. However, the IGF system is involved in diverse physiological functions and to date it is unknown how mutations in PAPP-A2, which significantly reduce f...

Maternal nutrition can have significant long-term consequences on energy homeostasis in the offspring. However, whether resveratrol, with antioxidant and anti-obesity actions, can improve the impact of poor maternal nutrition on offspring metabolism remains largely unknown. We hypothesized that resveratrol intake by dams would protect the offspring against the harmful effects of a maternal high fat diet (HFD). We also determined if resveratrol’s effects are diet and sex d...

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 2 plays a fundamental role in prenatal growth and development. The IGF2 gene is imprinted, with the paternally inherited copy being active and the maternal copy being silenced in most tissues. During development, the expression of IGF2 is sexually dimorphic in some tissues and this is thought to be involved in the development of some sexually dimorphic features. For example, IGF2 expression is reported to be higher in the male brain co...

Background: Neonatal over-nutrition (NON) can increase the propensity to become overweight and develop associated metabolic disturbances in later life. Moreover, some of these long-term effects are sexually dimorphic.Objective and hypotheses: We aimed to determine how NON affects body weight (BW), body composition and triglyceride (TG) and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) levels. We hypothesized that the effects would be both age and sex dependant.<...

Background: Circadian disorganization of feeding behavior evoked by high fat diet (HFD) intake is suggested to be involved in the resulting weight gain and development of associated metabolic alterations and hypothalamic inflammation.Hypothesis: We hypothesized that this circadian alteration might be a consequence of rapid de-synchronization of different gene clusters relevant for metabolic control.Methods: We analyzed the circadia...

Introduction: Obesity is known to associate with chronic systemic inflammation. However, hypothalamic inflammation also occurs in response to high fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and is proposed to participate in central insulin/leptin resistance and the perpetuation of weight gain and systemic affectation. The weight gain and central responses to HFD differ between males and females. As hypothalamic glial cells are implicated in the central inflammatory response we hypothesize...

Introduction: Maternal deprivation (MD) during neonatal life has diverse long-term effects, including modification of metabolism. Some of these effects are sexually dimorphic. We have previously reported that MD in rats blocks the physiological neonatal leptin surge, which could underlie the long-term metabolic changes.Hypothesis: We hypothesized that replacement of leptin during MD would normalize long-term endocrine changes.Metho...

Background: Prolonged poor dietary habits can result in hypothalamic inflammation and gliosis with more recent studies suggest that other brain areas may also be affected. Western or high fat diet intake has been associated with increased cognitive impairment and aberrant feeding behavior, with males and females being differentially affected. The hippocampus participates in both of these functions. Saturated free fatty acids can induce astrocyte inflammation and this could pot...