Neurochemistry international
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Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) peptide is widely expressed in the hypothalamus and is involved in the central regulation of energy balance. Using in situ hybridization, this study examined the roles of CART peptide in the hypothalamus of diet-induced obese (DIO) or diet-resistant (DR) mice under different dietary interventions including high-fat (HF), low-fat (LF) and pair-feeding (PF) diet for 6 weeks. Pair feeding the energy intake of the DIO and DR mice was used to determine whether there is an inherent difference in baseline CART expression that may cause the DIO and DR phenotypes. ⋯ Our study suggests that the decrease of CART mRNA expression in Arc and PVN regions of DIO mice may contribute to the development of high-fat diet-induced obesity. In addition, CART in the dorsomedial nucleus (DM) of hypothalamus and lateral hypothalamus (LH) may be involved in the activation of an orexigenic effect. Since pair feeding of the high-fat diet eliminated both the body weight and CART mRNA differences between the DIO and DR mice, it is likely that their alterations in gene expression were a consequence of their dissimilar body weight levels.
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Cellular therapy with adult stem cells appears as an opportunity for treatment of Parkinson's disease. To validate this approach, we studied the effects of transplantation of rat adult bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells in a rat model of Parkinson's disease. Animals were unilaterally lesioned in the striatum with 6-hydroxydopamine. ⋯ Moreover, using microdialysis studies, we observed that while the rate of pharmacologically induced release of dopamine was significantly reduced in lesioned versus intact striatum in no grafted rats, it was similar in both sides in animals transplanted with mesemchymal stem cells. These data demonstrate that graft of adult mesemchymal stem cells reduces behavioral effects induced by 6-hydroxydopamine lesion and partially restores the dopaminergic markers and vesicular striatal pool of dopamine. This cellular approach might be a restorative therapy in Parkinson's disease.