Download PDF
Horm Metab Res 1988; 20(11): 668-670
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-1010913
ORIGINALS
Basic
© Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart · New York

Reduced Hypothalamic Somatostatin and Neuropeptide Y Concentrations in the Spontaneously-Diabetic Chinese Hamster

G. Williams1 , M. A. Ghatei1 , A. R. Diani2 , G. C. Gerritsen2 , S. R. Bloom1
  • 1Francis Fraser Laboratories, Department of Medicine, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, United Kingdom
  • 2Diabetes Research Division, The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A.
Further Information

Publication History

1987

1987

Publication Date:
14 March 2008 (online)

Also available at
  PDF Download  Permissions and Reprints

Summary

Hypothalamic concentrations of six regulatory peptides having central effects on appetite and/or glucoregulation were measured by radioimmunoassay in spontaneously-diabetic Chinese hamsters and in age- and sex-matched non-diabetic control animals. In the diabetic hamsters, hypothalamic concentrations of somatostatin and neuropeptide Y were significantly reduced by 25-30% below controls. None of the other four peptides examined (bombesin, galanin, neurotensin and vasoactive intestinal peptide) differed significantly between the two groups.

Disturbances in neuropeptide Y (the most potent central appetite stimulant yet discovered) and in somatostatin could be related to hyperphagia, an early and possibly primary abnormality of the diabetic syndrome in the Chinese hamster.

Key-Words

Hypothalamus - Neuropeptide Y - Somatostatin - Hyperphagia - Diabetes - Chinese Hamster