WEDNESDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Mice that lack the receptor for prostaglandin E2 eat more and are about 20 percent heavier than normal mice, further supporting the role of the inflammatory system in weight gain and obesity, according to a report published online Feb. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
Tamas Bartfai, Ph.D., of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and colleagues studied mice lacking the prostanoid receptor EP3R, which binds to the important inflammatory signaling molecule prostaglandin E2. The mice were examined over a period of 40 weeks.
Compared with control mice, the EP3R knockout mice had alterations in nocturnal behavior and ate more during the day and in general. They consumed more when given a normal and 11 percent-fat diet. Although the knockout mice were also more active, they were characterized as obese due to higher insulin and leptin levels and because they averaged greater than 20 percent heavier than their wildtype littermates.
"The findings add to the growing literature on links between inflammatory signaling and obesity," the authors write. "Full pharmacological characterization of the contribution of EP3 mediated-signaling in obesity and other phenotypes awaits the introduction of an EP3 prostanoid receptor-specific antagonist, in the same manner that EP1 antagonist-medicated impulsive behavior served to verify the involvement of that receptor subtype in the behavioral effects."
Abstract
Full Text
