Journal
ADDICTION BIOLOGY
Volume 15, Issue 3, Pages 304-311Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1369-1600.2010.00216.x
Keywords
Dopamine; food anticipation; motivation; obesity; reward; VTA
Categories
Funding
- Swedish Research Council for Medicine [VR 2006-S663, 2008-2175, 2009-S266]
- European Union [LSHM-CT-2003-S03041, FP7-HEALTH-2009-241592, FP7-KBBE-2009-3-245009]
- Novo Nordisk Fonden
- ALF Goteborg [SU7601]
- Fredrik och Ingrid Thurings Stiftelse
- Konrad och Helgfrid Johanssons fond
- Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research to Sahlgrenska Center for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research [A305-188]
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We investigated whether ghrelin action at the level of the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a key node in the mesolimbic reward system, is important for the rewarding and motivational aspects of the consumption of rewarding/palatable food. Mice with a disrupted gene encoding the ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1A) and rats treated peripherally with a GHS-R1A antagonist both show suppressed intake of rewarding food in a free choice (chow/rewarding food) paradigm. Moreover, accumbal dopamine release induced by rewarding food was absent in GHS-R1A knockout mice. Acute bilateral intra-VTA administration of ghrelin increased 1-hour consumption of rewarding food but not standard chow. In comparison with sham rats, VTA-lesioned rats had normal intracerebroventricular ghrelin-induced chow intake, although both intake of and time spent exploring rewarding food was decreased. Finally, the ability of rewarding food to condition a place preference was suppressed by the GHS-R1A antagonist in rats. Our data support the hypothesis that central ghrelin signaling at the level of the VTA is important for the incentive value of rewarding food.
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