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Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Membrane Potential Dye Imaging of Ventromedial Hypothalamus Neurons From Adult Mice to Study Glucose Sensing
Published on: November 27, 2013
UCP2 Regulates Mitochondrial Fission and Ventromedial Nucleus Control of Glucose Responsiveness
Chitoku Toda1, Jung Dae Kim1, Daniela Impellizzeri2
1Program in Integrative Cell Signaling and Neurobiology of Metabolism, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA; Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
Abstract:
The ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH) plays a critical role in regulating systemic glucose homeostasis. How neurons in this brain area adapt to the changing metabolic environment to regulate circulating glucose levels is ill defined. Here, we show that glucose load results in mitochondrial fission and reduced reactive oxygen species in VMH neurons mediated by dynamin-related peptide 1 (DRP1) under the control of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2). Probed by genetic manipulations and chemical-genetic control of VMH neuronal circuitry, we unmasked that this mitochondrial adaptation determines the size of the pool of glucose-excited neurons in the VMH and that this process regulates systemic glucose homeostasis. Thus, our data unmasked a critical cellular biological process controlled by mitochondrial dynamics in VMH regulation of systemic glucose homeostasis.
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