Dr Clare Adam - Programming of energy balance regulation and control of satiety
Research Focus
Regulation of appetite and body weight is clearly defective in obesity and we need to understand the underlying homeostatic feedback mechanisms. The central energy balance regulatory pathways in the brain respond to hormones such as leptin and insulin that signal overall nutritional status and body fat reserves as well as to hormones from the gut that signal satiety and intake of food. My laboratory recently investigated how nutritional history and obesity affect the brain’s sensitivity to leptin and insulin. Studies are continuing to investigate how the central energy balance regulatory pathways are programmed by an individual’s prenatal nutritional history and birth weight, which can have a profound influence on adult body weight and adiposity. An additional new approach is to examine how different foods differentially stimulate gut satiety hormone secretion, which consequently influences appetite, food consumption, body weight and body composition. Current research is investigating how specific dietary macronutrients affect gut physiology and satiety hormone output, so that we may ultimately be able to recommend appropriate foods or food formulations for healthy bodyweight management and prevention of obesity.
Policy Briefings
Latest Publications
Wallace, J.M., Milne, J.S., Adam, C.L., Aitken, R.P. “Adverse metabolic phenotype in low-birth-weight lambs and its modification by postnatal nutrition.” British Journal of Nutrition, 107 (4) February 2012 pp. 510-522
Adam CL, Bake T, Findlay PA, Milne JS, Aitken RP, Wallace JM (2011) Effects of altered glucose supply and adiposity on expression of hypothalamic energy balance regulatory genes in late gestation growth restricted ovine fetuses. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience. 29 :775-81.
Miller DW, Bennett, EJ, Harrison JL, Findlay PA, Adam, CL (2011) Adiposity and plane of nutrition influence reproductive neuroendocrine and appetite responses to intracerebroventricular insulin and neuropeptide-Y in sheep. Reproduction, Fertility and Development 23 329-338.
Adam, CL, Findlay PA (2010) Decreased blood-brain leptin transfer in an ovine model of obesity and weight loss: resolving the cause of leptin resistance. International Journal of Obesity 34 980-988.
Adam CL (2010) Leptin: primary central site of action? Endocrinology 151 1975-1977.
Adam CL, Findlay PA, Chanet A, Aitken RP, Milne JS, Wallace JM (2008) Expression of energy balance regulatory genes in the developing ovine fetal hypothalamus at mid-gestation and influence of hyperglycemia. American Journal of Physiology Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 294(6) R1895-R1900.
Harrison JL, Miller DW, Findlay PA, Adam CL (2008) Photoperiod influences the central effects of ghrelin on food intake, GH and LH secretion in sheep. Neuroendocrinology 87(3) 182-192.
Muhlhausler BS, Adam CL, McMillen IC (2008) Maternal nutrition and the programming of obesity: the brain. Organogenesis 4 (3) 144-152.