Gut hormones and the regulation of energy homeostasis.

Department of Metabolic Medicine, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, London W12 ONN, UK.

Food intake, energy expenditure and body adiposity are homeostatically regulated. Central and peripheral signals communicate information about the current state of energy balance to key brain regions, including the hypothalamus and brainstem. Hunger and satiety represent coordinated responses to these signals, which include neural and hormonal messages from the gut. In recent years our understanding of how neural and hormonal brain-gut signalling regulates energy homeostasis has advanced considerably. Gut hormones have various physiological functions that include specifically targeting the brain to regulate appetite. New research suggests that gut hormones can be used to specifically regulate energy homeostasis in humans, and offer a target for anti-obesity drugs.

PMID: 17167473 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]