Central visfatin causes orexigenic effects in chicks

Intracerebroventricular injection of visfatin caused increased feed intake and pecking efficiency, but did not affect water intake in chicks. Visfatin-treated chicks had increased c-Fos immunoreactivity in the lateral hypothalamus, decreased reactivity in the ventromedial hypothalamus and the dorsomedial hypothalamus, infundibular nucleus, periventricular nucleus, paraventricular nucleus were not affected. A low dose of visfatin increased locomotion. We conclude that intracerebroventricular injection of visfatin causes orexigenic effects in chicks. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.