| According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about 65% of Americans are overweight or obese. Even though many factors such as genetic predisposition, sedentary lifestyle, and consumption of high caloric food are attributed to the onset of obesity, the metabolic programming due to alterations in the nutritional status during early period of life is gaining fast recognition. In this context our study investigates the protein levels of insulin and leptin signal transducing molecules, in the hypothalamus of animals that were fed high carbohydrate diet (HC) during early period of organ development. NPY (neuropeptide Y) neurons, agouti related peptide (AGRP) neurons and proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) of hypothalamus are key regulators of food intake, which in turn receive signals of energy storage in the form of adipose signal leptin and insulin. HC milk diet was given from postnatal day 4 to postnatal day 24 and the alterations in the hypothalamus on day 12 and day 100 were investigated using western blotting technology. In day 100 HC animals the protein levels of insulin and leptin signaling molecules were significantly reduced, whereas the overall alterations in the 12 day old HC animals were insignificant. This investigation therefore emphasizes on the importance of metabolic programming as a cause of the numerous adult onset diseases such as obesity and diabetes. |
