Tanycytes (IMAGE)

University of East Anglia

Tanycytes

Caption

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have made a discovery in neuroscience that could offer a long-lasting solution to obesity. They established that a population of brain cells called "tanycytes" (pictured) behave like stem cells and add new neurons to the appetite-regulating circuitry of the mouse brain after birth and into adulthood. It was previously thought that the nerve cells in the brain associated with appetite regulation were generated entirely during an embryo's development in the womb and therefore their numbers were fixed for life.

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University of East Anglia

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