The Effect Of M-CPP On Corticosterone-Mediated Food Intake

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal(HPA) axis is the one of the neuroendocrine system, which can be response on stress. Corticosterone is secreted by the HPA axis, regulate sugar, protein and fat metabolism. In recent years, many studies of corticosterone confined to stress caused by the depression model of research. However, there is little known that acute effect of corticosterone on the feeding behavior and possible mechanisms. Therefore, the present study was aimed to investigate the acute effect of corticosterone on food intake.After acute corticosterone administration, different doses of the corticosterone(3, 10 and 30mg/kg) increased food intake in a dose dependent manner during 4-8 h. Furthermore,administration of the 5-HT2B/2C receptor agonist m-CPP reversed the effects of corticosterone on the feeding behavior. The anorectic effects of m-CPP lasted for at least 8h in mice receiving doses of 5mg/kg. Moreover, c-Fos immunohistochemistry showed that corticosterone increased c-Fos in the mice hypothalamus, and 5-HT2 C antagonist RS102221 inhibited c-Fos expression induced by corticosterone and m-CPP. However, western blotting study showed that m-CPP has no effect on the tyrosine hydroxylase and POMC.Therefore, hypothalamus may be responsible for the acute effects of m-CPP on food inhibiting behavior via 5-HT2 C receptors following corticosterone injection.