Appetite, food intake, body weight and energy expenditure is extensively regulated by the brain. Several nuclei in the hypothalamus, such as the arcuate nucleus, the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus and the lateral hypothalamus contribute to a neuronal network that integrates sensing of circulating factors such as nutrients and hormones to control feeding. Recently, we have gained evidence that this system may have a new player: tanycytes. Tanycytes are a particular type of glial cell lining the third ventricle. These cells send their processes to the hypothalamus, including the arcuate and the ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei. Their key anatomic localisation makes these cells a perfect candidate for being a link and a modulator of nutrients sensing between the cerebrospinal fluid and the cerebral parenchyma. And indeed, tanycytes respond to glucose via an increase in intracellular Ca2+ and release of ATP. Data ex vivo, as well as in vivo, shows the importance of tanycytes in the feeding neural circuit, sensing messages and responding to hormones from the cerebrospinal fluid.
In the lab, we aimed to document the neural circuit in which the tanycytes are involved in that perspective.

BSc, Cellular Biology and Physiology, 2004, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, France

MSc, Integrative Biology and Physiology: Neuroscience, 2006, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, France

PhD, Neurosciences, 2010, Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Germany and Université de Strasbourg, France.

Member of the Society for Neuroscience (SFN)

Member of the British Society of Neuroendocrinology (BSN)

Member of the French Society of Neuroendocrinology (SNE).