Regulation of Glycemia by Central Nervous System

Our research specialisation is centred on studying the effect of nutriments on the nervous control of energy homeostasis (food behaviour, secretion and insulin action) in physiological and physiopathological situations

More in particular, we study:

1) how the central nervous system (CNS) receives and permanently integrates peripheral signals providing information about the organism’s energy status (jejunum, fed, etc.). The signals that we study are of circulating (leptin, ghrelin, insulin, nutriments) or nervous (vagal afferents) origin. The intestine-brain axis is also studied.

2) How the metabolic flows (production and use of glucose, lipolysis), the endocrine secretions (insulin, leptin, ghrelin, GLP1), and food behaviour adapt as a function of this information. It concerns characterisation at the molecular, cell, and integrated stage: 1) the peripheral signals (of gastrointestinal or circulatory origin) informing the CNS; 2) the functioning of the CNS neurons specialised in integrating this information and localised in specific regions (hypothalamus, cerebral trunk, hippocampus, olfactory bulb); 3) The repercussion of this integration on the peripheral parameters mentioned above (metabolic flows, food behaviour, energy expenditure, etc.). These studies are carried out in normal, diabetic, and/or obese mouse models.

Main publications

Wigger L, Cruciani-Guglielmacci C, Nicolas A, Denom J, Fernandez N, Fumeron F, Marques-Vidal P, Ktorza A, Kramer W, Schulte A, Le Stunff H, Liechti R, Xenarios I, Vollenweider P, Waeber G, Uphues I, Roussel R, Magnan C, Ibberson M, Thorens B. Plasma Dihydroceramides Are Diabetes Susceptibility Biomarker Candidates in Mice and Humans. Cell Rep. 2017 Feb 28;18(9):2269-2279.

Laperrousaz E, Moullé VS, Denis RG, Kassis N, Berland C, Colsch B, Fioramonti X, Philippe E, Lacombe A, Vanacker C, Butin N, Bruce KD, Wang H, Wang Y, Gao Y, Garcia-Caceres C, Prévot V, Tschöp MH, Eckel RH, Le Stunff H, Luquet S, Magnan C, Cruciani-Guglielmacci C. Lipoprotein lipase in hypothalamus is a key regulator of body weight gain and glucose homeostasis in mice. Diabetologia. 2017 Jul;60(7):1314-1324.

Mortreux M, Foppen E, Denis RG, Montaner M, Kassis N, Denom J, Vincent M, Fumeron F, Kujawski-Lafourcade M, Andréelli F, Balkau B, Marre M, Roussel R, Magnan C, Gurden H, Migrenne-Li S. New roles for prokineticin 2 in feeding behavior, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes: Studies in mice and humans. Mol Metab. 2019 Nov;29:182-196.

Bravo-San Pedro JM, Sica V, Martins I, Pol J, Loos F, Maiuri MC, Durand S, Bossut N, Aprahamian F, Anagnostopoulos G, Niso-Santano M, Aranda F, Ramírez-Pardo I, Lallement J, Denom J, Boedec E, Gorwood P, Ramoz N, Clément K, Pelloux V, Rohia A, Pattou F, Raverdy V, Caiazzo R, Denis RGP, Boya P, Galluzzi L, Madeo F, Migrenne-Li S, Cruciani-Guglielmacci C, Tavernarakis N, López-Otín C, Magnan C, Kroemer G. Acyl-CoA-Binding Protein Is a Lipogenic Factor that Triggers Food Intake and Obesity. Cell Metab. 2019 Dec 3;30(6):1171.

Soleimanzad H, Montaner M, Ternier G, Lemitre M, Silvestre JS, Kassis N, Giacobini P, Magnan C, Pain F, Gurden H. Obesity in Midlife Hampers Resting and Sensory-Evoked Cerebral Blood Flow in Mice. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2020 Nov 10. doi: 10.1002/oby.23051. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33174382.

Sánchez-Archidona AR, Cruciani-Guglielmacci C, Roujeau C, Wigger L, Lallement J, Denom J, Barovic M, Kassis N, Mehl F, Weitz J, Distler M, Klose C, Simons K, Ibberson M, Solimena M, Magnan C, Thorens B. Plasma triacylglycerols are biomarkers of β-cell function in mice and humans. Mol Metab. 2021 Dec;54:101355. doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2021.101355. Epub 2021 Oct 9. PMID: 34634522; PMCID: PMC8602044.

Joly-Amado A, Soty M, Philippe E, Lacombe A, Castel J, Pillot B, Vily-Petit J, Zitoun C, Mithieux G, Magnan C. Portal Glucose Infusion, Afferent Nerve Fibers, and Glucose and Insulin Tolerance of Insulin-Resistant Rats. J Nutr. 2022 Aug 9;152(8):1862-1871. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxac097. PubMed PMID: 35511216