Feeding Neurons Integrate Metabolic and Reproductive States in Mice

Metabolic and reproductive processes interact in ways that are important for survival, particularly in mammals that gestate their young. Puberty and reproduction, as energetically taxing life stages, are often gated by metabolic availability in animals with ovaries. How the nervous system coordinates these interactions is an active area of study. We identify somatostatin (SST) neurons of the tuberal hypothalamus as a cell type in the feeding circuitry that alters feeding in a manner sensitive to metabolic and reproductive states in mice. Whereas chemogenetic activation of SST neurons increased food intake across sexes, selective ablation decreased food intake only in female mice during proestrus. Interestingly, this ablation effect was only apparent in animals with a low body mass. Fat transplantation and bioinformatics analysis of SST neuronal transcriptomes revealed white adipose as a key modulator of the effects of SST neurons on food intake. Together, these studies point to a mechanism whereby SST hypothalamic neurons modulate feeding by responding to varying levels of circulating estrogens differentially based on energy stores. This research provides insight into how neural circuits integrate reproductive and metabolic signals and illustrates how gonadal steroid modulation of neuronal circuits can be context-dependent and gated by metabolic status. RNA seq data from neurons FACS isolated from the mouse tuberal hypothalamus. Derived from n=4 male mice and n=4 female mice