cron-web.org

[A1CR]

It seemed that fasting affects brain hormones in the below
paper. 2 days is a pretty long primate fast.

Van Vugt DA, Lujan ME, Froats M, Krzemien A, Couceyro PR,
Reid RL.
Effect of Fasting on Cocaine-Amphetamine-Regulated
Transcript, Neuropeptide
Y, and Leptin Receptor Expression in the Non-Human Primate
Hypothalamus.
Neuroendocrinology. 2006 Nov 23; [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 17124379

is a cytokine produced by white adipose tissue that
circulates in direct
proportion to adiposity and is an important signal of energy
balance. Leptin
inhibits food intake in rodents by inhibiting the orexigenic
neuropetides
neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti regulated peptide (AgRP) and
stimulating the
anorexigenic neuropeptides alpha-melanocyte-stimulating
hormone (alpha-MSH)
and cocaine-amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART). In
order to extend our
understanding of neuroendocrine regulation of appetite in
the primate, we
determined the effect of a metabolic challenge on CART, NPY,
and leptin
receptor (Ob-R) messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) in the
nonhuman primate
(NHP) hypothalamus. Ten adult female rhesus monkeys were
either maintained
on a regular diet or fasted for two days before euthanasia.
CART, NPY, and
Ob-R mRNA were measured by in situ hybridization
histochemistry (ISHH). A
2-day fast decreased CART expression in the ARC, increased
NPY gene
expression in the supraoptic nucleus (SON) and
paraventricular nucleus
(PVN), and increased Ob-R expression in the ventromedial
nucleus (VMN). This
is the first report that fasting inhibits CART expression
and stimulates
Ob-R expression in monkeys. Increased NPY expression in the
SON and PVN, but
not the ARC of fasted monkeys also is novel. With some
exceptions, our
observations are confirmatory of findings in rodent studies.
Similarities in
the neuroendocrine responses to a metabolic challenge in
monkeys and rodents
support extending existing hypotheses of neuroendocrine
control of energy
homeostasis to primates.