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Volume 7, Issue 3 (Suppl)
J Obes Weight Loss Ther, an open access journal
ISSN: 2165-7904
Childhood Obesity & Bariatric Surgery 2017
June 12-13, 2017
Page 44
Notes:
conference
series
.com
June 12-13, 2017 Rome, Italy
&
Childhood Obesity and Nutrition
10
th
International Conference on
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
2
nd
International Conference on
JOINT EVENT
The vagal system as a mediator of the therapeutic effects of bariatric surgery
O
besity and type-2 diabetes are chronic diseases that respond with difficulty to drug therapies and lifestyle changes. At the
origin of this resistance to treatment, an alteration in the functioning of brain sectors in charge of the reward system and
of the energy homeostasis, due to a modification of synaptic transmission has been hypothesized. Overfeeding, presumably
beginning as a psychological compulsive search for a rewarding stimulus turns into food addiction due to the adaptation
of synapses in the reward circuit in response to the increased intensity of the inputs (synaptic plasticity). The same would
apply to the brain areas responsible for the maintenance of energy homeostasis. The afferent vagal paths transmit to the brain
information about ingested food from the digestive tract. Their intermediate station in the brainstem, the vagal nucleus of the
solitary tract has an important role in modulating the metabolic function of the liver and the pancreas. Moreover, they work
as a channel for the transmission of information from the periphery to the CNS with regard to both favorable and adverse
events. In this way, they influence the synaptic activity of various brain areas through neuroplasticity. The profound anatomical
and functional changes in the vagal system caused by bariatric surgery could explain the dramatic improvement in diabetes
and the renewed sensitivity to diet by a normalization of synaptic activity. In the future, modulating pharmacologically vagus-
vagal synaptic connections or driving brain plasticity via stimulation of the vagus afferents could obtain knifelessly the same
therapeutic effects as surgery.
Biography
Claudio Blasi completed his graduation in medicine at Sapienza University of Rome and post-graduation in endocrinology at La Sapienza School of Medicine. He has been
the director of ASLRMB-1D hospital diabetes center in rome. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals.
clblasi@tin.itClaudio Blasi
ASLRMB-1D Hospital Diabetes Center, Italy
Claudio Blasi, J Obes Weight Loss Ther 2017, 7:3 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2165-7904-C1-044