Adaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits.

Brain glucose sensing is critical for healthy energy balance, but how appropriate neurocircuits encode both small changes and large background values of glucose levels is unknown. Here, we report several features of hypothalamic orexin neurons, cells essential for normal wakefulness and feeding: (i)...

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Main Authors: Williams, R, Alexopoulos, H, Jensen, LT, Fugger, L, Burdakov, D
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2008
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author Williams, R
Alexopoulos, H
Jensen, LT
Fugger, L
Burdakov, D
author_facet Williams, R
Alexopoulos, H
Jensen, LT
Fugger, L
Burdakov, D
author_sort Williams, R
collection OXFORD
description Brain glucose sensing is critical for healthy energy balance, but how appropriate neurocircuits encode both small changes and large background values of glucose levels is unknown. Here, we report several features of hypothalamic orexin neurons, cells essential for normal wakefulness and feeding: (i) A distinct group of orexin neurons exhibits only transient inhibitory responses to sustained rises in sugar levels; (ii) this sensing strategy involves time-dependent recovery from inhibition via adaptive closure of leak-like K(+) channels; (iii) combining transient and sustained glucosensing allows orexin cell firing to maintain sensitivity to small fluctuations in glucose levels while simultaneously encoding a large range of baseline glucose concentrations. These data provide insights into how vital behavioral orchestrators sense key features of the internal environment while sustaining a basic activity tone required for the stability of consciousness.
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spelling oxford-uuid:3adb714e-b265-47a6-bbce-29a4723fdc6f2022-03-26T14:04:06ZAdaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:3adb714e-b265-47a6-bbce-29a4723fdc6fEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2008Williams, RAlexopoulos, HJensen, LTFugger, LBurdakov, DBrain glucose sensing is critical for healthy energy balance, but how appropriate neurocircuits encode both small changes and large background values of glucose levels is unknown. Here, we report several features of hypothalamic orexin neurons, cells essential for normal wakefulness and feeding: (i) A distinct group of orexin neurons exhibits only transient inhibitory responses to sustained rises in sugar levels; (ii) this sensing strategy involves time-dependent recovery from inhibition via adaptive closure of leak-like K(+) channels; (iii) combining transient and sustained glucosensing allows orexin cell firing to maintain sensitivity to small fluctuations in glucose levels while simultaneously encoding a large range of baseline glucose concentrations. These data provide insights into how vital behavioral orchestrators sense key features of the internal environment while sustaining a basic activity tone required for the stability of consciousness.
spellingShingle Williams, R
Alexopoulos, H
Jensen, LT
Fugger, L
Burdakov, D
Adaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits.
title Adaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits.
title_full Adaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits.
title_fullStr Adaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits.
title_full_unstemmed Adaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits.
title_short Adaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits.
title_sort adaptive sugar sensors in hypothalamic feeding circuits
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AT alexopoulosh adaptivesugarsensorsinhypothalamicfeedingcircuits
AT jensenlt adaptivesugarsensorsinhypothalamicfeedingcircuits
AT fuggerl adaptivesugarsensorsinhypothalamicfeedingcircuits
AT burdakovd adaptivesugarsensorsinhypothalamicfeedingcircuits