LOUISIANA: LSU Pennington professor investigating how the brain and body fat communicate
Heike Muenzberg-Gruening, professor at Louisiana State Pennington Biomedical Research Center, is leading a new study to investigate how the brain and body fat communicate to control the production and release of leptin, a feedback hormone that helps regulate appetite and the number of calories burned.
The new project is one of seven awards involving interoception, a new research focus for the NIH. Interoception is not well understood, but if the process is not working properly, a person may not sense whether they are hungry, full, cold, hot or thirsty.
“Fat tissue plays an important role in our health. It stores and breaks down fat but also secretes hormones, like leptin, to impact energy expenditure, food intake and blood sugar levels,” Muenzberg-Gruening said.
“Gaining a better understanding of how brain and fat tissue communicate represents an important advance, one that could help researchers find better ways to treat obesity,” said John Kirwan, executive director of Pennington.