The current obesity epidemic faced by Westernized societies has prompted the creation of animal models to better understand the biological processes responsible for excessive weight gain and metabolic syndrome. Alterations in body weight and body fat content occur when processes controlling energy intake and energy expenditure become disrupted and result in unbalanced energy homeostasis. Recently, dysfunction in multiple homeostatic neuronal ensembles of the hypothalamus, including the arcuate nucleus, has demonstrated the fundamental role of the brain in orchestrating global body homeostasis. 

Recent research has established a broad set of methodologies to characterize the many neurocircuits and hormonal feedback mechanisms responsible for impaired communication between the central nervous system and peripheral organs. Advancing research in this area depends on the creation of tools to precisely identify, record, and manipulate individual cell types in vivo to understand their role in energy homeostasis.

This methods collection brings together a wide range of integrative physiology techniques developed to study cellular interactions in healthy and pathological conditions. Methods focusing on live-cell imaging, transcriptional profiling, cellular genetic labeling, and cell manipulation in metabolic disease are presented here. This collection covers communication networks existing within the central nervous system, autonomic-central neurocircuits, and adipose-neuron feedback responses.