AUTHOR=Kelley Lyla , Verlezza Silvanna , Long Hong , Loka Mary , Walker Claire-Dominique TITLE=Increased Hypothalamic Projections to the Lateral Hypothalamus and Responses to Leptin in Rat Neonates From High Fat Fed Mothers JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience VOLUME=13 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.01454 DOI=10.3389/fnins.2019.01454 ISSN=1662-453X ABSTRACT=
The lateral hypothalamus (LHA) is a central hub in the regulation of food intake and metabolism, as it integrates homeostatic and hedonic circuits. During early development, maturing input to and output from the LHA might be particularly sensitive to environmental dietary changes. We examined the effects of a maternal high fat diet (HFD, 60% Kcal in fat) on the density of hypothalamic projections to the orexin (ORX-A) field of the LHA in 10 day-old (PND10) rat pups using retrograde labeling with fluorescent microspheres. We also compared responsiveness of phenotypically identified LHA neurons to leptin administration (3 mg/kg, bw) between pups from control (CD) or high fat (HFD) fed mothers on PND10 and 15-16, at the onset of independent feeding. HFD pups exhibited a higher density of LHA projections (