
Body weight homeostat that regulates fat mass independently of leptin in mice - gwern
http://www.pnas.org/content/115/2/427.long
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ohiovr
How big were these implant capsules? The rodents might have been cronically
uncomfortable and that may have been a factor in their loss of appetite. I
know when I feel sick I don't eat as much. Could they do this again with a
larger animal with weights that could be applied without any potential
discomfort? Or would putting huge weights on your knees while sitting make you
less likely to binge eat?

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gwern
The size of the implant can't be the issue because the implants (empty) were
also implanted in the active controls, who maintained their weight/food
intake. Any discomfort must have come from the additional weight, but of
course, that ought to also be true of mice who are fat. The crosscheck with
the less-boney mice, without any implants at all, also helps support that it
is the change in weight itself and not an associated effect of the implanted
spheres, which is the cause.

> Could they do this again with a larger animal with weights that could be
> applied without any potential discomfort?

One hopes so. Larger animals are harder to work with, of course. But it's wild
to imagine that putting on a weight vest might help you lose weight, even for
a field which has no shortage of strange results relating to
genetics/diet/metabolism/weightloss once you go beyond theological doctrine
like CICO.

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ohiovr
Thanks for that. On the flip of this concept do astronauts have more
difficulty with appetite in space than they do on earth due to the feeling of
weightlessness?

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gwern
I believe they have trouble with everything, but it's so general that you
can't attribute it to a single cause like 'the osteocyst weight homeostat goes
haywire' (for example, how would that cause the eye problems?).

