Decreased consumption of rewarding sucrose solutions after injection of melanocortins into the ventral tegmental area of rats

• Published in: Psychopharmacology Vol. 232; no. 1; pp. 285 - 294
• Main Authors: Yen, Haw-Han, Roseberry, Aaron G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.01.2015; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Body weight; Choice Behavior - drug effects; Choice Behavior - physiology; Dopamine; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Eating - drug effects; Eating - physiology; Food; Health aspects; Hormones; Injections, Intraventricular; Male; Melanocortins - administration & dosage; Neurosciences; Original Investigation; Peptides; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Psychiatry; Psychopharmacology; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Reward; Rewards; Rodents; Sucrose; Sucrose - administration & dosage; Ventral Tegmental Area - drug effects; Ventral Tegmental Area - physiology; MC4R; MC3R; MTII; Dopamine; Melanocortin; Reward; Two-bottle test; Feeding

Rationale The mesolimbic dopamine system is an important component of the neural circuitry controlling reward-related behavior. We have recently shown that the melanocortin peptides decrease normal homeostatic feeding through actions in the ventral tegmental area. It is unknown, however, whether mel...