{"id":20757,"date":"2025-04-15T02:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T02:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/20757\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T02:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T02:02:07","slug":"how-lactating-brains-rewire-metabolism-for-milk-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/20757\/","title":{"rendered":"How Lactating Brains Rewire Metabolism for Milk Production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Summary: <\/strong>Lactation triggers significant metabolic changes in mothers, driven by shifting hormone levels and brain activity. Researchers have now uncovered how increased prolactin and reduced estrogen suppress specific neurons in the hypothalamus to boost appetite and conserve fat, meeting the energy demands of nursing.<\/p>\n<p>Removing estrogen receptor \u03b1 (ER\u03b1) neurons in this brain region mimicked lactation, while reactivating them reversed these effects. This mechanism not only explains maternal metabolic shifts but may also hold clues for conditions like obesity, menopause, and hyperprolactinemia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Brain-Hormone Link:<\/strong> Estrogen receptor \u03b1 neurons in the hypothalamus regulate prolactin and energy balance during lactation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Metabolic Switch:<\/strong> Decreased ER\u03b1 activity leads to increased appetite and reduced fat-burning to sustain milk production.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Clinical Potential:<\/strong> Findings could inform treatments for obesity, menopause, and high prolactin disorders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong>Baylor College of Medicine<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nursing poses major metabolic demands on mothers, to which they respond by eating more and saving energy to sustain milk production. There are significant hormonal changes during lactation, but how they lead to metabolic adaptations in nursing mothers remained unclear. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this study, which appeared in\u00a0Nature Metabolism,\u00a0leading researchers at\u00a0Baylor College of Medicine\u00a0and\u00a0Pennington Biomedical Research Center\u00a0uncovered a mechanism that connects prolactin, estrogen, the brain and metabolic adaptations during lactation.<\/p>\n<p>  <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/lactation-estrogen-metabolism-neuroscience.jpg\" alt=\"This shows a mom, baby and brain.\"  \/> This work opens exciting avenues for future research on neuroendocrine control of metabolism. Credit: Neuroscience News<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe worked with animal models to investigate how hormones and the brain work together to adapt to the metabolic demands nursing mothers face to sustain milk production,\u201d said co-corresponding author\u00a0Dr. Chunmei Wang, assistant professor of pediatrics at the\u00a0USDA\/ARS Children\u2019s Nutrition Research Center\u00a0at Baylor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNormally, estrogen helps control appetite and increases the body\u2019s ability to burn fat, while prolactin does the opposite.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring lactation, estrogen levels drop, and prolactin levels rise, leading to increased hunger and reduced fat-burning to compensate for extra energy demands posed by milk production and consumption,\u201d said co-corresponding author\u00a0Dr. Yanlin He, associate professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found that brain cells called estrogen receptor \u03b1 (ER\u03b1) neurons in a small area of the hypothalamus are significantly less active during lactation,\u201d said co-first author\u00a0Dr. Meng Yu, postdoctoral associate in the\u00a0Wang lab.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe showed that when ER\u03b1 is deleted from these neurons, prolactin levels rise, and the animals increase their appetite and save energy by burning less fat. It was striking to see that just eliminating ER\u03b1 in this tiny brain region was able to sustain such major metabolic consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen ER\u03b1 neurons were removed in non-lactating female mice, the animals showed high prolactin levels and lactation-like changes\u00a0<strong>\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>eating more and burning less fat. Reactivating these neurons in lactating mice reduced these effects, showing their role in controlling metabolism,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am excited that we have discovered a novel mechanism for prolactin regulation,\u201d Wang said. \u201cWe knew that prolactin is produced by pituitary cells, and estrogen can act on these cells to increase prolactin levels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere we found a novel role of estrogen in regulating prolactin levels \u2013 it activates ER\u03b1 neurons in the hypothalamus, which in turn inhibits prolactin levels during lactation. These findings have potential clinical applications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe study sheds light on how the brain integrates hormonal signals to regulate energy balance, which could have broader implications for understanding hyperprolactinemia \u2013 high levels of prolactin in the blood \u2013 obesity, menopause and other conditions where prolactin or estrogen levels shift.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis work opens exciting avenues for future research on neuroendocrine control of metabolism,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n<p>Other contributors to this work include co-first authors Bing Feng and Jonathan C. Bean, as well as Qianru Zhao, Yongjie Yang, Hailan Liu, Yongxiang Li, Benjamin P. Eappen, Hesong Liu, Longlong Tu, Kristine M. McDermott, Mengjie Wang, Xi Chen, Na Yin, Darah Ave Threat, Nathan Xu, Junying Han, Peiyu Gao, Yi Zhu, Darryl L. Hadsell, Yang He and Pingwen Xu. The authors are affiliated with one of the following institutions: Baylor College of Medicine, Pennington Biomedical Research Center or the University of Illinois at Chicago.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Funding: <\/strong>This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01DK129548, R56DK133776, R00DK107008, P30 DK020595, R01DK123098, R01 DK136627, K01DK119471), USDA\/CRIS (3092-51000-062-04(B)S, a TCH-2023 Pediatric Pilot award, a fellowship award 3092-51000-056, American Heart Association awards (20POST35120600 and 20POST000204188) and a DOD Innovative Grant (W81XWH-20-1-0075).<\/p>\n<p>About this neuroscience research news<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Author: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#80d4e1f9eceff2aec2e1f2eee5f3c0e2e3edaee5e4f5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Taylor Barnes<\/a><br \/><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bcm.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Baylor College of Medicine<\/a><br \/><strong>Contact: <\/strong>Taylor Barnes \u2013 Baylor College of Medicine<br \/><strong>Image: <\/strong>The image is credited to Neuroscience News<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Original Research: <\/strong>Closed access.<br \/>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/s42255-025-01268-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Falling hypothalamic estrogenic signal sustains lactational hyperprolactinemia and metabolic adaptations<\/a>\u201d by Chunmei Wang et al. Nature Metabolism<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Falling hypothalamic estrogenic signal sustains lactational hyperprolactinemia and metabolic adaptations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>17\u03b2-oestradiol (E2) inhibits overeating and promotes brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis, whereas prolactin (PRL) does the opposite.<\/p>\n<p>During lactation, the simultaneous decline in E2 and surge in PRL contribute to maternal metabolic adaptations, including hyperphagia and suppressed BAT thermogenesis. However, the underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms remain unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Here, we find that oestrogen receptor alpha (ER\u03b1)-expressing neurons in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH), specifically the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus and the ventrolateral subdivision of the ventromedial hypothalamus (vlVMH), are suppressed during lactation.<\/p>\n<p>Deletion of ER\u03b1 from MBH neurons in virgin female mice induces metabolic phenotypes characteristic of lactation, including hyperprolactinemia, hyperphagia and suppressed BAT thermogenesis. By contrast, activation of ER\u03b1vlVMH\u00a0neurons in lactating mice attenuates these phenotypes.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, our study reveals an inhibitory effect of E2\u2013ER\u03b1vlVMH\u00a0signalling on PRL production, which is suppressed during lactation to sustain hyperprolactinemia and metabolic adaptations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary: Lactation triggers significant metabolic changes in mothers, driven by shifting hormone levels and brain activity. Researchers have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[13462,215,1584,105,13463,1549,13464,219,220,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-20757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-baylor-college-of-medicine","9":"tag-brain-research","10":"tag-estrogen","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-lactation","13":"tag-metabolism","14":"tag-mothers","15":"tag-neurobiology","16":"tag-neuroscience","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114339521732421462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}