Viewing the ventromedial hypothalamus from the adrenal gland

The relationships among food intake, insulin secretion, and adrenocortical function are reviewed. It is hypothesized that a major role of structures in, or passing through, the ventromedial hypothalamus is to inhibit food intake, insulin secretion, and adrenocortical function during the day (in the nocturnally active rat) and that this activity is normally driven by elements within the suprachiasmatic nuclei. Lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus of rats result in nonrhythmic food intake, hyperinsulinemia, nonrhythmic adrenocortical function, and obesity. Adrenalectomy prevents or reverses the effects of lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus on food intake, insulin secretion, and obesity, and corticosteroid replacement restores them. Because the actions of corticosteroids are both time- and dose-dependent, it is proposed that the effects of the tonic levels of corticosteroids observed after lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus are to augment the hyperphagia, hyperinsulinemia, and substrate flow into fat to a greater extent than would occur if there were a normal circadian rhythm in adrenocortical function.