Grant: Operating Grant

The unrelenting rise in obesity in most developed countries over the last three decades, together with the rising awareness of the detrimental impact of this condition on health and health costs, have considerably stimulated the research related to the causes and complications of excess fat deposition. Obesity is defined as an excess of adipose tissue that results from an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. The study of the complex brain controls exerted on the intake and expenditure determinants is a prerequisite to understand the pathophysiology of obesity in order to elaborate strategies to prevent and reverse excess fat deposition. Despite its crucial importance, the control of energy expenditure has received much less attention than that of food intake. However, the recent demonstration that brown adipose tissue (BAT) exists in substantial amount in adult humans has rejuvenated interest in the role of energy expenditure, specifically BAT thermogenesis, on energy balance. BAT is an organ with an enormous thermogenic capacity that could dissipate excess body energy (excess body fat). Heat production by BAT is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) through mechanisms and metabolic pathways, which have yet to be fully comprehended. The goal of the proposed research program is to study the brain-SNS-BAT axis in animal (brain circuitries behind SNS-mediated BAT thermogenesis). The proposed program will be conducted by two scientists who have a past history of collaboration and who are world-renowned experts in the neural and cellular adrenergic control of the BAT thermogenesis at various levels. The proposed approaches to achieve the objectives of the research program include functional neurobiological as well as cellular/molecular methodologies and sophisticated metabolic imaging technologies.