Given the important role of the hypothalamus in regulating feeding and metabolism, there has been considerable interest in a possible function for hypothalamic stem cells in modulating body weight in health and disease. Mice given a high-fat diet develop inflammation in the hypothalamus and lose key types of neurons. It now appears that another effect of a high-fat diet is to reduce neural stem cell numbers, as well as their ability to make new neurons — effects that are associated with activation of the IKKβ/NF-κB pathway — thereby exacerbating the primary loss of neurons and resulting in altered feeding behaviour and obesity.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Gage, F. H. Science 287, 1433–1438 (2000).
Pierce, A. A. & Xu, A. W. J. Neurosci. 30, 723–730 (2010).
Kokoeva, M. V., Yin, H. & Flier, J. S. J. Comp. Neurol. 505, 209–220 (2007).
Kokoeva, M. V., Yin, H. & Flier, J. S. Science 310, 679–683 (2005).
Li, J., Tang, Y. & Cai, D. Nat. Cell Biol. 14, 999–1012 (2012).
Lee, D. A. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 15, 700–702 (2012).
Thaler, J. P. & Schwartz, M. W. Endocrinology 151, 4109–4115 (2010).
Thaler, J. P. et al. J. Clin. Invest. 122, 153–162 (2012).
Zhang, X. et al. Cell 135, 61–73 (2008).
O'Rahilly, S. Dis. Model Mech. 4, 141–144 (2011).
Morton, G. J., Cummings, D. E., Baskin, D. G., Barsh, G. S. & Schwartz, M. W. Nature 443, 289–295 (2006).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Livesey, F. A potential link between obesity and neural stem cell dysfunction. Nat Cell Biol 14, 987–989 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2599
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2599