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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Isolation of Targeted Hypothalamic Neurons for Studies of Hormonal, Metabolic, and Electrical Regulation
Published on: August 4, 2023
Fatty acid synthase gene regulation in primary hypothalamic neurons
Eun-Kyoung Kim1, Amy M Kleman, Gabriele V Ronnett
1Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. kimeunk@msu.edu
Abstract:
Understanding the mechanisms that regulate feeding is critical to the development of therapeutic interventions for obesity. Many studies indicate that enzymes within fatty acid metabolic pathways may serve as targets for pharmacological tools to treat this epidemic. We, and others have previously demonstrated that C75, a fatty acid synthase (FAS) inhibitor, induced significant anorexia and weight loss by both central and peripheral mechanisms. Because the hypothalamus is important in the regulation of homeostatic processes for feeding control, we have identified pathways that alter the gene expression of FAS in primary hypothalamic neuronal cultures. Insulin, glucose and AICAR (an activator of AMP-activated protein kinase) affected changes in hypothalamic FAS mRNA, which may be regulated via the SREBP1c dependent or independent pathway.
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