RT Journal Article T1 Central manipulation of dopamine receptors attenuates the orexigenic action of ghrelin A1 Romero Picó, Amparo A1 Garrido Novelle, Marta A1 Folgueira, Cintia A1 López, Miguel A1 Nogueiras, Rubén A1 Diéguez, Carlos AB ObjectiveRecent evidence suggests that ghrelin, a peptidic hormone stimulating food intake, interacts with the dopamine signaling. This interaction has been demonstrated to modulate several effects of ghrelin, such as locomotor activity, memory, and food intake. Ghrelin increases dopamine levels in the shell of the nucleus accumbens stimulating food intake, while ablation of the ghrelin receptor attenuates the hypophagia caused by the activation of dopamine receptor 2. However, it is not known whether the orexigenic action of ghrelin is due to changes in central dopamine receptors.Materials and methodsWe used Sprague–Dawley rats injected with different dopamine receptor agonists, antagonists, and ghrelin.ResultsWe demonstrate that the specific central blockade of dopamine receptor 1, 2, and 3 (D1, D2, and D3, respectively) reduces the orexigenic action of ghrelin. Similarly, specific central stimulation, either singly of dopamine receptor 1 or dopamine receptors 2 and 3 simultaneously, causes a significant decrease in ghrelin-induced food intake. Co-stimulation of all three receptors (D1, D2, and D3) also led to a marked attenuation in ghrelin-induced food intake. Importantly, the reduction in ghrelin-induced feeding was not caused by malaise or any type of behavioral alteration.ConclusionTaken together, these data indicate that dopamine receptors play an important role in acute stimulation of feeding behavior induced by central injection of ghrelin. PB Springer SN 0033-3158 YR 2013 FD 2013 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/94910 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/94910 LA eng NO Romero-Picó, A., Novelle, M.G., Folgueira, C. et al. Central manipulation of dopamine receptors attenuates the orexigenic action of ghrelin. Psychopharmacology 229, 275–283 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-013-3096-7 NO This work has been supported by grants from Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia (CD: BFU2011; ML: RyC-2007-00211; RN: RYC-2008-02219 and BFU2012-35255), Xunta de Galicia (ML: 10PXIB208164PR and RN: EM 2012/039 and 2012-CP069), Fondo Investigationes Sanitarias (ML: PS09/01880), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn). CIBERobn is an initiative of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) of Spain which is supported by FEDER funds. The research leading to these results has also received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under the following grants (CD, ML and RN: FP7/2007-2013: no. 245009: NeuroFAST, and RN: ERC-2011-StG-OBESITY53-281408). NO Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (España) NO Xunta de Galicia NO Instituto de Salud Carlos III NO European Commission DS Docta Complutense RD 25 dic 2025