Timing of caloric intake during weight loss differentially affects striatal dopamine transporter and thalamic serotonin transporter binding

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that meal timing throughout the day contributes to maintaining or regaining weight after hypocaloric diets. Although brain serotonin and dopamine are well known to be involved in regulating feeding, it is unknown whether meal timing during energy restriction affects these neurotransmitter systems. We studied the effect of a 4 wk hypocaloric diet with either 50% of daily calories consumed at breakfast (BF group) or at dinner (D group) on hypothalamic and thalamic serotonin transporter (SERT) binding and on striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) binding. The BF and D groups lost a similar amount of weight. Striatal DAT and thalamic SERT binding increased in the BF group, while decreasing in the D group after the diet (ΔDAT 0.37 ± 0.63 -0.53 ± 0.77, respectively; = 0.005; ΔSERT 0.12 ± 0.25 -0.13 ± 0.26 respectively, = 0.032). Additional voxel-based analysis showed an increase in DAT binding in the ventral striatum in the BF group and a decrease in the dorsal striatum in the D group. During weight loss, striatal DAT and thalamic SERT binding increased weight independently when 50% of daily calories were consumed at breakfast, whereas it decreased when caloric intake was highest at dinner. These findings may contribute to the earlier reported favorable effect of meal timing on weight maintenance after hypocaloric diets.-Versteeg, R. I., Schrantee, A., Adriaanse, S. M., Unmehopa, U. A., Booij, J., Reneman, L., Fliers, E., la Fleur, S. E., Serlie, M. J. Timing of caloric intake during weight loss differentially affects striatal dopamine transporter and thalamic serotonin transporter binding.

Infusion of donor feces affects the gut–brain axis in humans with metabolic syndrome

“…The subjects were scanned after an overnight fast and pretreated with potassium iodide for thyroid blockade of free radioactive iodide. For scanning, the Inspira HD system was used, a brain-dedicated tomographic SPECT scanner (Neurologica, Boston, MA, USA), and an acquisition protocol as previously described (slice thickness 4 mm and acquisition time 180 s/slice) [ 71 ]. All the scans were reconstructed in 3D mode and corrected for attenuation.…”

“…To determine SERT binding in the thalamus and hypothalamus and DAT binding in the striatum, a region of interest (ROI) analysis was conducted as previously described [ 71 ] ( Figure 1 A). Striatal and thalamic masks were obtained from individual T1-weighted MRI scans using FreeSurfer (version 5.3.0.)…”

Clinical evaluation of [123I]FP-CIT SPECT scans on the novel brain-dedicated InSPira HD SPECT system: a head-to-head comparison

“…The ENC-DAT control database [ 3 ] as implemented in BRASS was used as a reference template and for region definition. An independent sample of healthy subjects scanned on the InSPira was used to assess if patient’s striatal ratios fell within the normal range (only available for InSPira data) [ 4 ].…”

“…In routine practice, the majority of neuro SPECT studies within the Academic Medical Center consist of dopamine transporter (DAT) SPECT imaging [ 4 – 6 ]. DAT imaging with [ 123 I]FP-CIT is an established diagnostic tool to detect loss of the dopaminergic nigrostriata pathway, a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease (PD).…”

The pathogenesis of obesity

“…This effect was not observed with other hypercaloric diets, indicating a role for diet composition in mediating these effects. Meal timing may be similarly important: obese subjects in a hypocaloric diet intervention study, who consumed most calories at breakfast, had increased thalamic serotonin and striatal dopamine transporter availability, whereas those, who consumed calories at dinner, had decreased availability of both transporters [242]. We have also shown that striatal D2/3R availability is reduced in obese women, but partially reversible after bariatric surgery-induced long-term weight loss [243]; this suggests that obesity may, in fact, cause the observed changes in the dopamine system.…”