{"id":214117,"date":"2025-05-16T01:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/abstract-for-several-years-researchers-have-known-that-hyperactivity-of-a-subset-of-neurons-located-in-the-hypothalamus-called-agrp-neurons-is-common-in-mice-with-diabetes"},"modified":"2025-05-16T01:10:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T06:10:00","slug":"abstract-for-several-years-researchers-have-known-that-hyperactivity-of-a-subset-of-neurons-located-in-the-hypothalamus-called-agrp-neurons-is-common-in-mice-with-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/abstract-for-several-years-researchers-have-known-that-hyperactivity-of-a-subset-of-neurons-located-in-the-hypothalamus-called-agrp-neurons-is-common-in-mice-with-diabetes","title":{"rendered":"Abstract: For several years, researchers have known that hyperactivity of a subset of neurons located in the hypothalamus, called AgRP neurons, is common in mice with diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/abstract19.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese neurons are playing an outsized role in hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes,\u201d said UW Medicine endocrinologist Dr. Michael Schwartz, corresponding author of the paper.<\/p>\n<p>To determine if these neurons contribute to elevated blood sugar in diabetic mice, researchers employed a widely used viral genetics approach to make AgRP neurons express tetanus toxin, which prevents the neurons from communicating with other neurons.<\/p>\n<p>Unexpectedly, this intervention normalized high blood sugar for months, despite having no effect on body weight or food consumption.<\/p>\n<p>Conventional wisdom is that diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes, stems from a combination of genetic predisposition and lifestyle factors, including obesity, lack of physical activity and poor diet. This mix of factors leads to insulin resistance or insufficient insulin production.<\/p>\n<p>Until now, scientists have traditionally thought the brain doesn\u2019t play a role in type 2 diabetes, according to Schwartz.<\/p>\n<p>The paper challenges this and is a \u201cdeparture from the conventional wisdom of what causes diabetes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The new findings align with studies published by the same scientists showing that injection of a peptide called FGF1 directly into the brain also causes diabetes remission in mice. This effect was subsequently shown to involve sustained inhibition of AgRP neurons.<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/abstract-for-several-years-researchers-have-known-that-hyperactivity-of-a-subset-of-neurons-located-in-the-hypothalamus-called-agrp-neurons-is-common-in-mice-with-diabetes\">Continue reading \u201cAbstract: For several years, researchers have known that hyperactivity of a subset of neurons located in the hypothalamus, called AgRP neurons, is common in mice with diabetes\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThese neurons are playing an outsized role in hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes,\u201d said UW Medicine endocrinologist Dr. Michael Schwartz, corresponding author of the paper. To determine if these neurons contribute to elevated blood sugar in diabetic mice, researchers employed a widely used viral genetics approach to make AgRP neurons express tetanus toxin, which prevents [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}