PUBLICATION
Melatonin treatment suppresses appetite genes and improves adipose tissue plasticity in diet-induced obese zebrafish
- Authors
- Montalbano, G., Mania, M., Abbate, F., Navarra, M., Guerrera, M.C., Laura, R., Vega, J.A., Levanti, M., Germanà, A.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-180622-36
- Date
- 2018
- Source
- Endocrine 62(2): 381-393 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Germanà, Antonino, Guerrera, Maria Cristina, Montalbano, Giuseppe
- Keywords
- Adipose tissue., Diet-induced obesity, Melatonin, Zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Adipocytes/cytology
- Adipocytes/drug effects
- Adipocytes/metabolism
- Adipose Tissue/metabolism*
- Animals
- Appetite/genetics*
- Body Mass Index
- Brain Chemistry
- Cell Count
- Cell Size/drug effects
- Diet
- Disease Models, Animal
- Gene Expression/drug effects*
- Male
- Melatonin/pharmacology*
- Neuropeptide Y/genetics
- Obesity/etiology
- Obesity/metabolism*
- Obesity/prevention & control
- Orexins/genetics
- Pro-Opiomelanocortin/genetics
- RNA, Messenger/analysis
- Zebrafish
- PubMed
- 29926348 Full text @ Endocrine
Citation
Montalbano, G., Mania, M., Abbate, F., Navarra, M., Guerrera, M.C., Laura, R., Vega, J.A., Levanti, M., Germanà, A. (2018) Melatonin treatment suppresses appetite genes and improves adipose tissue plasticity in diet-induced obese zebrafish. Endocrine. 62(2):381-393.
Abstract
Purpose Overweight and obesity are important risk factors for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and premature death in modern society. Recently, numerous natural and synthetic compounds have been tested in diet-induced obese animal models, to counteract obesity. Melatonin is a circadian hormone, produced by pineal gland and extra-pineal sources, involved in processes which have in common a rhythmic expression. In teleost, it can control energy balance by activating or inhibiting appetite-related peptides. The study aims at testing effects of melatonin administration to control-fed and overfed zebrafish, in terms of expression levels of orexigenic (Ghrelin, orexin, NPY) and anorexigenic (leptin, POMC) genes expression and morphometry of visceral and subcutaneous fat depots.
Methods Adult male zebrafish (n = 56) were divided into four dietary groups: control, overfed, control + melatonin, overfed + melatonin. The treatment lasted 5 weeks and BMI levels of every fish were measured each week. After this period fishes were sacrificed; morphological and morphometric studies have been carried out on histological sections of adipose tissue and adipocytes. Moreover, whole zebrafish brain and intestine were used for qRT-PCR.
Results Our results demonstrate that melatonin supplementation may have an effect in mobilizing fat stores, in increasing basal metabolism and thus in preventing further excess fat accumulation. Melatonin stimulates the anorexigenic and inhibit the orexigenic signals.
Conclusions It seems that adequate melatonin treatment exerts anti-obesity protective effects, also in a diet-induced obesity zebrafish model, that might be the result of the restoration of many factors: the final endpoint reached is weight loss and stabilization of weight gain.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping