Appetite restored with dopamine

Abstract

Striatal dopamine can effect specific feeding behaviors, reports a recent Neuron article. Mice born with dopaminergic-cell deficits in tyrosine-hydroxylase are so severely hypoactive and hypophagic that they die of starvation by one month. Using virus-assisted gene therapy in these mice, University of Washington researchers found that restoring dopamine production in the caudate putamen (CPu) restores feeding on normal chow and preference for palatable diets. Mice injected in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) still won't eat normal chow, but they do prefer palatable diets. These differences in either eating for sustenance or eating for pleasure might also reflect larger distinctions in behavior motivation, because CPu dopamine restores nest-building behavior, whereas NAc dopamine increases exploratory behavior. Injections in either area did not fully reverse coordination or movement deficits in these mice, but this study could shed light on dietary and motivational issues that often accompany motor deficits in Parkinson's disease.