Hypothalamic NPY-Y1R Interacts with Gonadal Hormones in Protecting Female Mice against Obesity and Neuroinflammation

We previously demonstrated that Npy1r(rfb) mice, which carry the conditional inactivation of the Npy1r gene in forebrain principal neurons, display a sexually dimorphic phenotype, with male mice showing metabolic, hormonal and behavioral effects and females being only marginally affected. Moreover, exposure of Npy1r(rfb) male mice to a high-fat diet (HFD) increased body weight growth, adipose tissue, blood glucose levels and caloric intake compared to Npy1r(2lox) male controls. We used conditional knockout Npy1r(rfb) and Npy1r(2lox) control mice to examine whether forebrain disruption of the Npy1r gene affects susceptibility to obesity and associated disorders of cycling and ovariectomized (ovx) female mice in a standard diet (SD) regimen or exposed to an HFD for 3 months. The conditional deletion of the Npy1r gene increased body weight and subcutaneous white adipose tissue weight in both SD- and HFD-fed ovx females but not in cycling females. Moreover, compared with ovx control females on the same diet regimen, Npy1r(rfb) females displayed increased microglia number and activation, increased expression of Neuropeptide Y (NPY)-immunoreactivity (IR) and decreased expression of proopiomelanocortin-IR in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC). These results suggest that in the ARC NPY-Y1R reduces the susceptibility to obesity of female mice with low levels of gonadal hormones and that this effect may be mediated via NPY-Y1R ability to protect the brain against neuroinflammation.