Genetically obese (ob/ob) mice are hypersensitive to glucocorticoid stimulation of feeding but dramatically resist glucocorticoid-induced weight loss.
The genetically obese (ob/ob) mouse is hyperphagic and hypercorticosteronemic; both hyperphagia and excessive weight gain are ameliorated by adrenalectomy. We report here that corticosterone or dexamethasone stimulate feeding in obese mice at one-fifth the dose needed to increase feeding in lean littermates. Metabolic weight loss, a measure of carbon dioxide and water lost due to respiration, is stimulated by glucocorticoids. Yet we find that obese mice are only one-seventh as sensitive as lean mice to the enhancement of metabolic weight loss following corticosterone. Therefore, hypersensitivity to glucocorticoid-induced feeding and hyposensitivity to glucocorticoid-stimulated weight loss may act in tandem to produce the ob/ob's exaggerated weight gain.
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects*; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000494:pharmacology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008820:Mice, Obese; D009765:Obesity / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*
D005938:Glucocorticoids; D003907:Dexamethasone; D003345:Corticosterone