Project Description:

Chronic therapy with AT₁ receptor blockers (ARBs, which are clinically established for treating high blood pressure) are experimental demonstrated to prevent obesity without exactly knowing the underlying mechanisms. We recently had shown that brain- and Ang(1-7)-dependent pathways are involved and that leptin function is improved. We here mainly want to investigate whether improved leptin function after ARB treatment is related to a better cerebral blood flow and whether brain glucose uptake is affected by ARB treatment.


Experimental Methods:

• Working with genetically modified mice (Mas ko mice, db/db mice, ob/ob mice)
• Chronic treatment of mice with ARB
• Phenotyping of mice including measurement of blood pressure, food intake, locomotion, energy expenditure (indirect calorimetry), glucose control (insulin tolerance test), fat mass (MRT)
• Cerebral blood flow by laser speckle imaging
• Cerebral glucose uptake by PET scanning (provided that PET is available)
• DNA and RNA extraction, PCR, qPCR
• Biochemical multiplex analysis of adipokines and various endocrine parameters
  
  

Schuster, F., Huber, G., Stölting, I., Wing, E. E., Saar, K., Hübner, N., Banks, W. A., and Raasch, W.: Telmisartan prevents diet-induced obesity and preserves leptin transport across the blood-brain barrier in high-fat diet-fed mice. Pflugers Arch, vol. [Epub ahead of print], , 2018, doi: 10.1007/s00424-018-2178-0

Huber, G., Schuster, F., and Raasch, W.: Brain renin-angiotensin system in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. Pharmacol Res., vol. pii: S1043-6618(17), pp. 30514-5, 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2017.06.016