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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 May 14.
Published in final edited form as: Int J Obes (Lond). 2016 Nov 14;41(3):402–411. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2016.193

Figure 5. The effects of weight cycling on dopamine-related gene expression in the hypothalamus and reward areas.

Figure 5

Dopamine-related neuropeptide expression as measured by RT-qPCR; in the hypothalamus (hypo) (A-C); ventral tegmental area (VTA) (D-F); nucleus accumbens (NAc) (G-I); prefrontal cortex (PFC) (K-L) at 6 (C, F), 12 (CC, CF, FC, FF) and 18 weeks (CCC, CFC, FCF, FFF). (A) Hypo: 6 weeks, (B) Hypo: 12 weeks, (C) Hypo: 18 weeks, (D) VTA: 6 weeks, (E) VTA: 12 weeks, (F) VTA: 18 weeks, (G) NAc: 6 weeks; (H) NAc: 12 weeks, (I) NAc: 18 weeks; (J) PFC: 6 weeks, (K) PFC: 12 weeks, (L) PFC: 18 weeks. Statistical TH: tyrosine hydroxylase; D1R: dopamine receptor D1A; D2R: dopamine receptor 2; DAT: dopamine active transporter; DARPP: dopamine and cAMP-regulated neuronal phosphoprotein; COMT: Catechol-O-methyl-transferase. Measurements in fold change (arbitrary units). Data presented as mean ± sem; n=5-8/group; statistical analysis performed using an unpaired t-test; * = p<0.05, ** = p<0.01; *** = p<0.001