Central nervous system control of food intake

New information regarding neuronal circuits that control food intake and their hormonal regulation has extended our understanding of energy homeostasis, the process whereby energy intake is matched to energy expenditure over time. The profound obesity that results in rodents (and in the rare human case as well) from mutation of key signalling molecules involved in this regulatory system highlights its importance to human health. Although each new signalling pathway discovered in the hypothalamus is a potential target for drug development in the treatment of obesity, the growing number of such signalling molecules indicates that food intake is controlled by a highly complex process. To better understand how energy homeostasis can be achieved, we describe a model that delineates the roles of individual hormonal and neuropeptide signalling pathways in the control of food intake and the means by which obesity can arise from inherited or acquired defects in their function.     

Comparative metabolic studies with Natulan®, methylhydrazine and methylamine in rats

Zusammenfassung Nach intraperitonealer Verabreichung von Natulan^®, Methylamin oder Methylhydrazin an Ratten konnte im Urin neben den verabreichten Stoffen Methylamin nachgewiesen werden, dagegen wurde Methylhydrazin als Metabolit von Natulan^® nicht gefunden. Das Auftreten von Methylamin nach Gabe der erwähnten Hydrazinverbindungen zeigt, dass der Ratten-organismus nicht nur, wie bisher bekannt, aromatische Azoverbindungen an der N-N-Bindung spalten kann, sondern auch aliphatisch-araliphatische.

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Registered trade mark forp-(isopropylcarbamoyl)benzyl methylhydrazine, a cytostatic methylhydrazine derivative.     

Reflex activity of single preganglionic sympathetic fibres during coronary occlusion

Résumé La décharge de fibres sympathiques préganglionnaires isolées, faisant probablement partie de l'innervation efférente du cur, a été étudiée sur des chats, soit anésthésiés, soit décérébrés, soit spinalisés, par rapport à l'occlusion d'un segment de l'artère coronaire de gauche.

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This work was supported in part by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Group of Experimental Medicine. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Dr. E. R.Perl for kindly showing them his dissecting techniques.