The brain-stomach connection.

ABSTRACT

The stomach-brain connection has been revealed to be one of the most promising targets in treating obesity. The stomach plays a key role in the homeostatic mechanism implicating stomach-brain communication regulated under neural and hormonal control. The present review explores specific topics related to gut-brain interactions focus on the stomach-brain connection through the different known systems implied in energy balance control as ghrelin, and nesfatin. Moreover, novel mechanisms for energy balance regulation involving gastric-brain communication are described including the role of the gastric intracellular mTOR/S6K1 pathway mediating the interaction among ghrelin, nesfatin and endocannabinoid gastric systems to modulate metabolism.