Journal: Molecular Metabolism
Article Title: Amygdala aromatase controls food intake, reward, and thermoregulation
doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2025.102202
Figure Lengend Snippet: Loss of CeA aromatase results in altered food-reward behavior in a sex-specific manner. When offered palatable chocolate pellets, CYP-KD OVX female rats consumed more over a 2 h period than controls (A) . Chronic aromatase expression knockdown led to increased motivation to work for a palatable food reward compared to control, as indicated by increased number of active lever presses (B) and an increase in pellets earned in the progressive ratio operant conditioning test (C). The number of entries into the food dispenser (D) and locomotor activity in the operant conditioning box (E) remained unchanged by the knockdown. Male rats did not change their palatable chocolate pellet consumption after CeA aromatase loss (F). Food-motivated behavior was not altered by CeA aromatase knockdown in ORX males as indicated by unaltered number of active lever presses (G) and food rewards earned (H) , compared to control males. Food seeking (I) and locomotor activity (J) also remained unchanged between AAV groups in ORX males. When expressed as % response of controls, KD female rats worked twice as hard for the food reward under loss of CeA aromatase compared to KD males (K) , which did not change their food-motivated behavior compared to male controls. Application of exogenous E2 into the CeA of intact female rats, with normal levels of CeA aromatase, resulted in reduced effort for a food reward (L) and reduced food rewards earned (M), in addition to reduced food seeking (N) compared to controls , without alterations in locomotor activity (O) . The same exogenous E2 application did not alter active lever presses (P) , food rewards earned (Q) , food seeking (R), or locomotor activity (S) compared to controls, in male rats. OVX = ovariectomized females; ORX = orchiectomized males; CYP-KD = Cyp19a1 knockdown, E2 = 17 b-estradiol. A–K: n = 10–14, L–O: n = 10, P–S: n = 7. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM. ∗ p < 0.05, ∗∗ p < 0.01.
Article Snippet: Gene expression was measured with real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) using the following TaqMan assays for rat tissues: Cyp19a1-Rn00567222_m1 (Applied Biosystems).
Techniques: Chocolate, Expressing, Knockdown, Control, Activity Assay