# Acute elevated dietary fat alone is not sufficient to decrease AgRP projections in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in mice

## TL;DR

A short high-fat diet does not reduce AgRP neuron connections in mice hypothalamus, suggesting other factors may drive these changes.

## Contribution

The study shows that elevated dietary fat alone does not alter AgRP projections in the PVH of mice.

## Key findings

- An acute high-fat diet did not decrease AgRP projections in the PVH of male or female mice.
- Two image analysis methods confirmed no significant effect of the high-fat diet on AgRP neuronal connections.
- The results suggest that other dietary components may be responsible for hypothalamic changes.

## Abstract

Within the brain, the connections between neurons are constantly changing in response to environmental stimuli. A prime environmental regulator of neuronal activity is diet, and previous work has highlighted changes in hypothalamic connections in response to diets high in dietary fat and elevated sucrose. We sought to determine if the change in hypothalamic neuronal connections was driven primarily by an elevation in dietary fat alone. Analysis was performed in both male and female animals. We measured Agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neuropeptide and Synaptophysin markers in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH) in response to an acute 48 h high fat diet challenge. Using two image analysis methods described in previous studies, an effect of a high fat diet on AgRP neuronal projections in the PVH of male or female mice was not identified. These results suggest that it may not be dietary fat alone that is responsible for the previously published alterations in hypothalamic connections. Future work should focus on deciphering the role of individual macronutrients on neuroanatomical and functional changes.