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A potential link between obesity and neural stem cell dysfunction

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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.

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Figure 1: Neural stem cells in the hypothalamus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frederick J. Livesey is in the Gurdon Institute and Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QN, UK,

    Frederick J. Livesey

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  1. Frederick J. Livesey
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Correspondence to Frederick J. Livesey.

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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

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