Reese Guo
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Research Mentor(s): Roger Cone
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Molecular and Integrative Physiology / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 6 – 4:40pm – 5:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Lijun Guo, Danielle Porter, Roger Cone
Presenter: 17
Abstract
Gonadal hormones have been shown to modulate aspects of energy homeostasis such as food intake and weight changes, in addition to developing and maintaining reproductive systems. The melanocortin-3 receptor (MC3R), expressed in the arcuate nucleus, has been demonstrated to mediate interactions between energy homeostasis and reproductive state. Specifically, previous work has been shown that a deficiency in estrogen due to ovariectomy of MC3R knockout (KO) female mice leads to significant increase in body weights and adiposity, as well as significantly higher level of serum leptin of ovariectomized (OVX) mice in the KO group compared to wildtype (WT) animals. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the role of estrogen in modulating this previously observed phenotype. We hypothesized that adding back estrogen post-ovariectomy would decrease body weight and adiposity, as well as reduce serum leptin levels. To this aim, we performed sham surgery (N=10), surgical ovariectomy (N=10) and injected estrogen back to another cohort of OVX mice ( OVX+E; N=11) on mice aged 8-14 weeks. Additionally, metabolic indicators including body weight, fat mass, lean mass, fat pad weights, serum leptin level, and serum insulin level were measured (N=31). We found that estrogen deficiency of MC3R KO mice that underwent OVX have significantly higher body weights and adiposity compared to WT, while estrogen add back resulted in a significant decrease in body weight. We found that MC3R KO animals that underwent OVX showed significantly higher serum leptin level compared to the MC3R KO sham animals, but WT animals that underwent OVX did not compare to the WT sham animals. Additionally, the OVX+E animals had a decrease in serum leptin levels. There were no differences in serum insulin level among SHAM, OVX, and OVX+E groups. Overall, estrogen replacement in OVX animals decreased body weight, fat mass, lean mass, and serum leptin level in both WT and MC3RKO animals, demonstrating a role for estrogen in modulating metabolic function in the MC3RKO animal.
Natural/Life Sciences
