Abstract #2332

Herlihy A, Bell J, Nadkarni N, Kuo Y

Manganese-Enhanced MRI (MEMRI) is a functional neuroimaging tool that could be useful in the investigation of appetite regulation. The leptin deficient (ob/ob) mouse is an important model of obesity, and the efficacy of MEMRI needed to be determined in this system. This study provides evidence that in vivo MEMRI confirms some previous in vitro c-Fos results in the ob/ob mouse, for example demonstrating an absence of fasting state regulation of neuronal activity in appetite centres. However, there are discrepancies with c-Fos as to the chronic, long-term effect of leptin deficiency on neuronal activity.