Fig. 1: Chronic inhibition of Arc POMC neurons caused obesity.
From: The melanocortin action is biased toward protection from weight loss in mice
a Diagram depicting one side injection of AAV-Felx-Kir2.1-mCherry virus to Arc POMC neurons. b Expression pattern of viral vector expression (mCherry) and β-endorphin (cyan) or β-endorphin alone to demonstrate a higher level of β-endorphin at the non-injected side (arrows). c Diagram depicting bilateral injection of AAV-Flex-Kir2.1-mCheery virus to the Arc of POMC-Cre mice feeding on a chow diet for 10 weeks after viral delivery. d Representative expression patterns of the injected virus in the Arc in a rostral to caudal dimension. 3 V: third ventricle, Arc: arcuate nucleus. Scale bars: 50 µm. e Weekly body weight of male POMC-Cre mice with bilateral delivery of Kir2.1 or control virus to the Arc (n = 8 mice/each, two-way ANOVA, Control vs. Kir2.1, **p = 0.009 at 2 weeks post viral injection, ***p < 0.001 at 3–10 weeks post viral injection). f–h Comparison in fat mass (f, n = 7 mice/each, two-tailed unpaired t-tests, ***p = 0.0002), lean mass (g, n = 7 mice/each, two-tailed unpaired t-tests, *p = 0.0334) and feeding (h, n = 7 mice/each, two-tailed unpaired t-tests, *p = 0.0218) in the mice shown in e at 10 weeks after viral delivery. i, j Comparison between the groups of mice in O2 consumption (i, n = 7 mice/each, two-tailed unpaired t-tests, p = 0.5062) and locomotion (j, n = 7 mice/each, two-tailed unpaired t-tests, *p = 0.0179) measured between 2–3 weeks after viral injection when the body weight difference between the groups was minimal. All data were presented as mean ± SEM. Source data are provided in the Source Data file.
