Obesity: hormonal regulation

• Autor(a) principal: Veiga, Luísa
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25758/set.1421
• topic: Obesidade; Hormonas; Tecido adiposo; Trato gastrointestinal; Abordagem terapêutica; Obesity; Hormones; Adipose tissue; Gastrointestinal tract; Therapeutic approaches

Obesity is considered by WHO a public health problem, as the number of overweight people worldwide is now 1.9 billion, out of which approximately 600 million are obese. This condition is correlated with a high risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. This pathology arises as a consequence of an imbalance between energy intake and energy expended. This imbalance can result from psychological, environmental, genetic, and metabolic factors, which are inducers of eating disorders such as increased food intake and a sedentary lifestyle. The regulation of energy balance results from a variety of afferent stimuli that are processed in the central nervous system, and efferent responses regulate appetite and satiety. Afferent impulses may occur by stimulating the vagus nerve or involving hormones released by adipose tissue (leptin, adiponectin, resistin, and visfatin) and the gastrointestinal tract (ghrelin, PYY, PP, GPL-1, and CCK). The response to the stimulus causes activation or inhibition of orexigenic neurons (NPY, AgRP) and/or anorexigenic neurons (POMC, CART), primarily expressed in the hypothalamus. While the activation of neurons that express AgRP and NPY increases appetite, the activation of neurons that express POMC provides satiety. Many studies have sought to understand these regulatory mechanisms of energy balance. However, the results are still not precise and arguably even contradictory. With this article, we intend to review the mechanisms of hormonal regulation involved in the pathogenesis of obesity, with particular emphasis on hormones produced in fat tissue, stomach, and intestine. As an epidemic of the XXI century because of its high prevalence and associated complications, it is crucial that obesity becomes the topic of further studies in order to find new therapeutic approaches.