Cell Metabolism Article Hyperinsulinemia Drives Diet-Induced Obesity Independently of Brain Insulin Production Arya E. Mehran,1,2 Nicole M. Templeman,1,2 G. Stefano Brigidi,1 Gareth E. Lim,1,2 Kwan-Yi Chu,1,2 Xiaoke Hu,1,2 Jose Diego Botezelli,1,2 Ali Asadi,1,2 Bradford G. Hoffman,2 Timothy J. Kieffer,1,2 Shernaz X. Bamji,1 Susanne M. Clee,1 and James D. Johnson1,2,* 1Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences 2Department of Surgery University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada *Correspondence:
[email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2012.10.019 SUMMARY obesity. Fat-specific insulin receptor knockout mice are pro- tected from diet-induced obesity and have extended longevity Hyperinsulinemia is associated with obesity and (Blu¨ her et al., 2002; Katic et al., 2007), whereas elimination of pancreatic islet hyperplasia, but whether insulin insulin receptors from some, but not all, brain regions increases causes these phenomena or is a compensatory food intake and obesity (Bru¨ ning et al., 2000; Ko¨ nner and Bru¨ n- response has remained unsettled for decades. We ing, 2012). The interpretation of studies involving insulin receptor examined the role of insulin hypersecretion in diet- ablation is confounded by compensation between tissues and induced obesity by varying the pancreas-specific disruption of insulin-like growth factor signaling involving hybrid receptors (Blu¨ her et al., 2002; Kitamura et al., 2003). Moreover, Ins1 gene dosage in mice lacking Ins2 gene expres- knockout of the insulin receptor, by definition, induces tissue- sion in the pancreas, thymus, and brain.