Neuropeptide Y as a far-reaching neuromediator: from energy balance and cardiovascular regulation to central integration of weight and bone mass control mechanisms. Implications for human diseases.
OBJECTIVE
I review recent knowledge on the interference of neuropeptide Y with energy balance and cardiovascular and renal disease and on the central regulation of bone mass.


RESULTS
Although neuropeptide Y is mainly seen as a vasoconstrictor, rats overexpressing the neuropeptide Y gene show reduced blood pressure and longer life span in comparison with control rats. Due to its strong mitogenic effects on vascular smooth muscle cells, neuropeptide Y induces occlusive lesions in a rat model of atherosclerosis induced by balloon angioplasty. The involvement of neuropeptide Y in experimental atherosclerosis is complex and may include also favourable, compensatory, mechanisms because, at physiological concentrations, it also activates a potent neoangiogenic response to ischemia. Subjects with a common genotype in the neuropeptide Y gene, which underlies increased intracellular neuropeptide Y storage, display slightly raised blood pressure, high serum cholesterol and increased carotid intima media thickness. In patients with end-stage renal disease high neuropeptide Y in plasma has been associated consistently with concentric left-ventricular hypertrophy and cardiovascular mortality. Finally, recent studies have shown that neuropeptide Y constitutes an important central regulator of bone mass and that it may be involved in inflammation and immune regulation.


CONCLUSIONS
Evidence has accrued in experimental animals that altered neuropeptide Y is involved in obesity and the attendant metabolic complications. Recent data also suggest that this peptide may play a role in atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular complications.
Zoccali
Carmine
C
CNR-IBIM Epidemiologia Clinica e Fisiopatologia delle Malattie Renali e dell'Ipertensione Arteriosa, Ospedali Riuniti, Reggio Calabria, Italy. carmine.zoccali@tin.it
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000503:physiopathology; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009478:Neuropeptide Y / Q000097:blood*; D051381:Rats
D009478:Neuropeptide Y