Dioxins, the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and the central regulation of energy balance

作者：Linden Jere; Lensu Sanna; Tuomisto Jouko; Pohjanvirta Raimo^*

来源：Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 2010, 31(4): 452-478.

DOI：10.1016/j.yfrne.2010.07.002

• Dioxins
• TCDD
• 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
• Aryl hydrocarbon receptor
• Food intake
• Energy balance
• Body weight
• Wasting syndrome
• Central nervous system

Dioxins are ubiquitous environmental contaminants that have attracted toxicological interest not only for the potential risk they pose to human health but also because of their unique mechanism of action. This mechanism involves a specific, phylogenetically old intracellular receptor (the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, AHR) which has recently proven to have an integral regulatory role in a number of physiological processes, but whose endogenous ligand is still elusive. A major acute impact of dioxins in laboratory animals is the wasting syndrome, which represents a puzzling and dramatic perturbation of the regulatory systems for energy balance. A single dose of the most potent dioxin, TCDD, can permanently readjust the defended body weight set-point level thus providing a potentially useful tool and model for physiological research. Recent evidence of response-selective modulation of AHR action by alternative ligands suggests further that even therapeutic implications might be possible in the future.

• 出版日期2010-10