Adrenalectomy Alters the Sensitivity of the Central

reduces food intake and body weight in rodents and prevents excessive weight gain in many genetic and dietary models of obesity. Thus, glucocorticoids appear to play a key role to promote positive energy balance in normal and pathological conditions. By comparison, central nervous system melanocortin signaling provides critical inhibitory tone to regulate energy balance. The present experiments sought to test whether glucocorti-coids influence energy balance by altering the sensi-tivity to melanocortin receptor ligands. Because melanocortin-producing neurons are hypothesized to be downstream of leptin in a key weight-reducing circuit, we tested rats for their sensitivity to leptin and con-firmed reports that the hypophagic response to third ventricular (i3vt) leptin is increased in ADX rats and i