Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Veterinary Research Communications https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-017-9706-9 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The efect of Nesfatin-1 on food intake in neonatal chicks: role of CRF 1 /CRF2 and H1/ H3 receptors Hooman Heidarzadeh 1  · Morteza Zendehdel 2  · Vahab Babapour 2  · Hasan Gilanpour 1 Received: 20 September 2017 / Accepted: 19 December 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract The present study was designed to determine the efect of central injection of Nesfatin-1 and corticotropin and histaminer- gic systems on food intake in neonatal meat-type chicks. In this study, 7 experiments were designed, each with 4 treatment groups. In experiment 1, four groups of chicks received the ICV injection of (A) phosphate-bufered saline (PBS), (B) Nesfatin-1 (10 ng), (C) Nesfatin-1 (20 ng) and (D) Nesfatin-1 (40 ng). In experiment 2, (A) PBS, (B) Astressin-B (CRF 1 / CRF 2 receptors antagonist; 30 µg), (C) Nesfatin-1 (40 ng) and (D) Nesfatin-1 + Astressin-B were injected. In experiments 3–6, chicken received ICV injection of the Astressin2-B (CRF 2 receptor antagonist; 30 µg), α-FMH (alpha fuorome- thyl histidine; as inhibitor of histidine decarboxylase, 250 nmol), Chlorpheniramine (histamine H 1 receptors antagonist, 300 nmol), Famotidine (histamine H 2 receptors antagonist, 82 nmol) and Thioperamide (histamine H 3 receptors antagonist, 300 nmol) instead of the Astressin-B. Then the cumulative food intake measured until 120 min post-injection. According to the results, ICV injection of Nesfatin-1 dose dependently decreased food intake in neonatal chicks (P < 0.05). Co-injection of the Nesfatin-1 and Astressin-B (CRF 1 /CRF 2 ) inhibited Nesfatin-1 induced hypophagia (P < 0.05). ICV inejction of the Nesfatin-1 + Astressin-B signifcantly inhibited the efect of Nesfatin-1 on food intake (P < 0.05). In addition, α-FMH and chlorpheniramine attenuated Nesfatin-1-induced hypophagia in chicks (P < 0.05); while thioperamide signifcantly ampli- fed the efect of Nesfatin-1 on food intake in chicks (P < 0.05). These results suggested Nesfatin-1 has an anorectic efect in 3-hour food deprived neonatal meat-type chicks and this efect was mediated by corticotropin CRF 1 /CRF 2 as well as histamine H 1 and H 3 receptors. Keywords Nesfatin-1 · Corticotropin · Histamine · Food intake · Neonatal chicks Introduction Appetite regulation is a complex physiologic phenomenon which interacts via diverse signals from central and periph- eral tissues (Hassanpour et al. 2015; Zendehdel et al. 2017). In the central nervous system (CNS), numerous neurotrans- mitters interact by a wide distributed neurological network on food intake regulation (D’Addario et al. 2014). The home- ostasis of the food consumption and energy expenditure is regulated by complex neurochemical pathways in several parts of brain including striatum, amygdala, hypothalamus, arcuate nucleus (ARC) and nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) (D’Addario et al. 2014). Nesfatin-1 is an anorectic peptide, 82-amino acid which newly isolated from the precursor DNA binding/ EF-hand/acidic protein/nucleobindin-2 (NUCB2) (Oh et al. 2006). Nesfatin has 87.4% homology to humans and 95.7% to mice (Shousha et al. 2015). No research has been published on avian nesfatin and its homology to mam- mals. However, the NUCB2 gene was identifed from the sequenced chicken genome and has the accession number NM_001006468XM_421004. In the CNS, Nesfatin-1 dis- covered in ARC, NTS, paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) (Guo et al. 2015). Based on the reports, intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of the Nesfatin-1 reduces food intake in rats (Atsuchi et al. 2010; Stengel and Tache 2013; Guo et al. 2015). These fndings suggest that nesfatin-1 acts as anorexigeic neurotransmitter * Morteza Zendehdel zendedel@ut.ac.ir 1 Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, 14155-6453, Tehran, Iran