AgRP mediated calcium Inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve-brain pathway

Abstract Obesity poses serious health risks and is trending younger, developing effective strategies to prevent obesity is crucial. Calcium intake is a potential strategy to reduce weight/fat, as it generally enhances the body’s energy metabolism. However, calcium’s effects on appetite and its speci...

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Main Authors: Aru Su, Linghui Pan, Qian Zhou, Qin Zhu, Ruihua Li, Mingming Liu, Ruifan Wu, Lina Wang, Songbo Wang, Qingyan Jiang, Gang Shu, Canjun Zhu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-05-01
Series:Cell & Bioscience
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13578-025-01409-7
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author Aru Su
Linghui Pan
Qian Zhou
Qin Zhu
Ruihua Li
Mingming Liu
Ruifan Wu
Lina Wang
Songbo Wang
Qingyan Jiang
Gang Shu
Canjun Zhu
author_facet Aru Su
Linghui Pan
Qian Zhou
Qin Zhu
Ruihua Li
Mingming Liu
Ruifan Wu
Lina Wang
Songbo Wang
Qingyan Jiang
Gang Shu
Canjun Zhu
author_sort Aru Su
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Obesity poses serious health risks and is trending younger, developing effective strategies to prevent obesity is crucial. Calcium intake is a potential strategy to reduce weight/fat, as it generally enhances the body’s energy metabolism. However, calcium’s effects on appetite and its specific mechanisms remain unclear. To investigate these questions, we administered calcium orally to fasted mice and found that calcium inhibited food intake during the first 3 h. Long-term calcium supplementation in water decreased HFD intake, weight gain, and fat deposition while increasing energy metabolism in young mice. Mechanistically, calcium activated the vagal afferent nerves and inhibited ARCAgRP neurons—key appetite regulation neuron. What’s more, these effects are blunted by chemogenetic inhibition of gastrointestinal intestinal vagal afferent nerves or activation of ARCAgRP neuronal activity. Overall, we showed that ingested calcium activates vagal afferent nerves, inhibiting the activity of ARCAgRP neurons, thereby reducing food intake. This study supports calcium’s role in obesity dietary therapy.
format Article
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institution OA Journals
issn 2045-3701
language English
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher BMC
record_format Article
series Cell & Bioscience
spelling doaj-art-72cf13240ebd4c9ca8c6a1208c459cb02025-08-20T01:53:25ZengBMCCell & Bioscience2045-37012025-05-0115111210.1186/s13578-025-01409-7AgRP mediated calcium Inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve-brain pathwayAru Su0Linghui Pan1Qian Zhou2Qin Zhu3Ruihua Li4Mingming Liu5Ruifan Wu6Lina Wang7Songbo Wang8Qingyan Jiang9Gang Shu10Canjun Zhu11State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityState Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, Province Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Regulation and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural UniversityAbstract Obesity poses serious health risks and is trending younger, developing effective strategies to prevent obesity is crucial. Calcium intake is a potential strategy to reduce weight/fat, as it generally enhances the body’s energy metabolism. However, calcium’s effects on appetite and its specific mechanisms remain unclear. To investigate these questions, we administered calcium orally to fasted mice and found that calcium inhibited food intake during the first 3 h. Long-term calcium supplementation in water decreased HFD intake, weight gain, and fat deposition while increasing energy metabolism in young mice. Mechanistically, calcium activated the vagal afferent nerves and inhibited ARCAgRP neurons—key appetite regulation neuron. What’s more, these effects are blunted by chemogenetic inhibition of gastrointestinal intestinal vagal afferent nerves or activation of ARCAgRP neuronal activity. Overall, we showed that ingested calcium activates vagal afferent nerves, inhibiting the activity of ARCAgRP neurons, thereby reducing food intake. This study supports calcium’s role in obesity dietary therapy.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13578-025-01409-7CalciumAppetiteVagal afferent nerveAgRP
spellingShingle Aru Su
Linghui Pan
Qian Zhou
Qin Zhu
Ruihua Li
Mingming Liu
Ruifan Wu
Lina Wang
Songbo Wang
Qingyan Jiang
Gang Shu
Canjun Zhu
AgRP mediated calcium Inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve-brain pathway
Cell & Bioscience
Calcium
Appetite
Vagal afferent nerve
AgRP
title AgRP mediated calcium Inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve-brain pathway
title_full AgRP mediated calcium Inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve-brain pathway
title_fullStr AgRP mediated calcium Inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve-brain pathway
title_full_unstemmed AgRP mediated calcium Inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve-brain pathway
title_short AgRP mediated calcium Inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve-brain pathway
title_sort agrp mediated calcium inhibition of feeding via the vagal afferent nerve brain pathway
topic Calcium
Appetite
Vagal afferent nerve
AgRP
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s13578-025-01409-7
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