Regulation of Glycemia by Central Nervous System (REGLYS)

Head: Christophe Magnan (PR UPCité)

 

Our research specialisation is centred on studying the effect of nutriments on the nervous control of energy homeostasis (food behaviour, secretion and insulin action) in physiological and physiopathological situations More in particular, we study: 1) how the central nervous system (CNS) receives and permanently integrates peripheral signals providing information about the organism’s energy status (jejunum, fed, etc.). The signals that we study are of circulating (leptin, ghrelin, insulin, nutriments) or nervous (vagal afferents) origin. The intestine-brain axis is also studied. 2) How the metabolic flows (production and use of glucose, lipolysis), the endocrine secretions (insulin, leptin, ghrelin, GLP1), and food behaviour adapt as a function of this information. It concerns characterisation at the molecular, cell, and integrated stage: 1) the peripheral signals (of gastrointestinal or circulatory origin) informing the CNS; 2) the functioning of the CNS neurons specialised in integrating this information and localised in specific regions (hypothalamus, cerebral trunk, hippocampus, olfactory bulb); 3) The repercussion of this integration on the peripheral parameters mentioned above (metabolic flows, food behaviour, energy expenditure, etc.). These studies are carried out in normal, diabetic, and/or obese mouse models.

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