An international research team found that a high-fat diet can disable the function of brain cells responsible for regulating food consumption.
In their study published in the Sciences journal, the team including researches from the US, Sweden, and the UK, reported that "after mice ate fatty food, cells in their brains that send a stop eating signal were quieter."
Most people who become obese know that the more they overeat fatty foods, the harder it seems to stop. In this new effort, the researchers may have uncovered part of the reason.
During the study, the researchers used the photon calcium imaging technique to monitor the neurons in mice brains after feeding them a fatty diet. They found that nerve cells in the lateral hypothalamus that are involved in suppressing hunger, and their job is to tell mice when they have had enough to eat, were disabled.
The photon calcium imaging is used to monitor calcium levels in cells, as it is a very important regulator of many physiological processes in the vascular tissues, and any change in its levels may indicate a cell malfunction. The researchers focused most specifically on brain activity in the lateral hypothalamus, it is a part of the brain that prior research has shown is involved in regulating hunger.
Dr. Garret Stuber, neurobiologist at the University of North Carolina, and the study lead author, said in a report: "Just two weeks into the fatty diet regimen, the glutamatergic nerve cells in the mice became less active when they were given a sip of sugar water. The reductions in activity continued as the mice were fed the fatty diet for 12 weeks."
"Our next step is to carry out studies involving clinical trials on humans, as prior research has shown that the hypothalamus in humans is involved in regulating hunger," he noted.
