NEUROHORMONAL CONTROL OF FOOD INTAKE
The main objective of our group's research is to deepen the understanding of the molecular, genetic and behavioral mechanisms involved in the development of the hypothalamic food intake circuit and, specifically, to study how dietary imbalances during early life affect the functioning of the neurohormonal systems that regulate feeding, which may lead to the development of eating disorders.
Our most recent works have focused on investigating in preclinical models the role of estradiol in modulating the alterations produced by malnutrition, as well as on the programming of the hypothalamic circuitry that controls feeding. Estradiol has an inhibitory function on food intake and can modulate the changes produced by under- and over-nourishment during the second week of life. Moreover, its activity during this same period determines the programming of physiological and neurohormonal variables of the feeding regulatory system. In our studies we always include males and females because it is essential to know precisely how both functions to effectively determine strategies for the prevention and treatment of different disorders and diseases. In our case, we demonstrated that the effects found in the modulating and programming function of estradiol are different in males and females.
Obesity is a disorder whose origin can be detected in the early stages of development, when the neurohormonal systems that control this behavior are being shaped. This is a period of great vulnerability in which exposure to various adverse internal and external factors (exposome) can greatly jeopardize the correct adjustment of all neural networks, leading to health problems in adulthood. It is therefore essential to determine all factors, including psychological factors (psychoexposome), that may increase the risk of diseases later in life.