Molecular mechanisms involved in the modulation of spontaneous physical activity and development of obesity

• Grant number: 11/05932-3
• Support type: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• Duration: March 01, 2012 - February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Camila Aparecida Machado de Oliveira
• Grantee: Camila Aparecida Machado de Oliveira
• Home Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Antonio Carlos Boschiero ; Everardo Magalhães Carneiro ; Maria Alice Rostom de Mello ; Rodrigo Ferreira de Moura
• Associated scholarship(s): 13/01624-8 - Effects of different diets (low protein and high fat diet) on spontaneous physical activity and hypothalamic expression of genes related to energy homeostasis in mice, BP.MS

Abstract

Obesity results from a chronic imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, favoring a positive energy balance. Physical activity may alter body weight as efficiently as food intake. However, the mechanisms underlying its control are not well understood. Physical activity is classified in voluntary exercise (sports, gym), and spontaneous physical activity (SPA - body movements to perform routine tasks), which can represent more than 50% of total daily energy expenditure. Researches to clarify the mechanisms regulating SPA may offer new therapeutic targets to prevent or treat obesity. In rodents, low protein diets (LP) at early life increase SPA, whilst high fat diets (HL) have opposite effect. It is well known that the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) has a fundamental role on energy homeostasis, and could participate in the regulation of SPA. Insulin and leptin, adiposity signals, may be involved in this process. Voluntary exercise improves both insulin and leptin sensitivity in the ARC modulating the expression of hypothalamic neuropeptides. Thus, voluntary exercise may influence the reduced SPA, observed in obese subjects. Initially, the aim of this study is to search for central candidates (hypothalamic genes and/or proteins) that modulate SPA in mice with opposite locomotor activity (LP or HL diet). Next, we will investigate whether these candidates and SPA are regulated by voluntary exercise in mice fed a HL diet. Finally, we will confirm the role of these previously selected candidates by administrating, via intracerebroventricular, agonists/antagonists or activators/inhibitors of those targets concomitantly with the analysis of SPA. (AU)

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DE CARVALHO, FRANCINE PEREIRA; MORETTO, THAIS LUDMILLA; BENFATO, IZABELLE DIAS; BARTHICHOTO, MARCELA; FERREIRA, SANDRA MARA; COSTA-JUNIOR, JOSE MARIA; MACHADO DE OLIVEIRA, CAMILA APARECIDA. Central and peripheral effects of physical exercise without weight reduction in obese and lean mice. BIOSCIENCE REPORTS, v. 38, n. 2 APR 27 2018. Web of Science Citations: 5.

BENFATO, IZABELLE DIAS; MORETTO, THAIS LUDMILLA; DE CARVALHO, FRANCINE PEREIRA; BARTHICHOTO, MARCELA; FERREIRA, SANDRA MARA; COSTA JUNIOR, JOSE MARIA; LAZZARIN, MARIANA CRUZ; DE OLIVEIRA, FLAVIA; MARTINEZ, CAROLINA; DE FRANCA CARVALHO, CAROLINA PRADO; MACHADO DE OLIVEIRA, CAMILA APARECIDA. Spontaneous physical activity and mediators of energy homeostasis in the hypothalamus of mice from 4 to 10 months of age. Experimental Physiology, v. 102, n. 11, p. 1524-1534, NOV 1 2017. Web of Science Citations: 0.

MORETTO, THAIS LUDMILLA; BENFATO, IZABELLE DIAS; DE CARVALHO, FRANCINE PEREIRA; BARTHICHOTO, MARCELA; LE SUEUR-MALUF, LUCIANA; MACHADO DE OLIVEIRA, CAMILA APARECIDA. The effects of calorie-matched high-fat diet consumption on spontaneous physical activity and development of obesity. Life Sciences, v. 179, p. 30-36, JUN 15 2017. Web of Science Citations: 7.

DE CARVALHO, FRANCINE PEREIRA; BENFATO, IZABELLE DIAS; MORETTO, THAIS LUDMILLA; BARTHICHOTO, MARCELA; MACHADO DE OLIVEIRA, CAMILA APARECIDA. Voluntary running decreases nonexercise activity in lean and diet-induced obese mice. Physiology & Behavior, v. 165, p. 249-256, OCT 15 2016. Web of Science Citations: 10.