Molecular mechanisms of neuronal histamine and its receptors in obesity.

Obesity is an important health problem because it is associated with diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia in metabolic syndrome. The detail molecular mechanisms that underlie obesity have not been fully elucidated, and its therapeutic approach is of general interest. There is increasing evidence that obesity is under control of several factors in the brain and a number of studies have revealed that the brain functions that regulate energy balance play a central role in the development of obesity. Several orexigenic and anorexigenic neuropeptides in the brain are involved in obesity, although their relative contributions are different. The histamine-containing neurons and its receptors are distributed throughout the brain. The results of pharmacological studies revealed that neuronal histamine and its receptors are involved in the regulation of obesity in rodents and humans. In this review, we describe the neuronal histamine and its receptor as a pharmacological molecular target for obesity.