Activity-based anorexia activates nesfatin-1 immunoreactive neurons in distinct brain nuclei of female rats

•Activity-based anorexia (ABA) is an animal model for anorexia nervosa.•ABA increases neuronal activity assessed using c-Fos in SON, PVN, DMH, Arc, DR.•ABA activates nesfatin-1 immunoreactive cells in SON, PVN, DMH, Arc, DR and RPa.•ABA increases the number of NUCB2/nesfatin-1 cells in PVN, DMH, Arc, LC and NTS.•ABA activates nuclei involved in the regulation of food intake, anxiety and stress. Activity-based anorexia (ABA) is an established animal model for the eating disorder anorexia nervosa (AN). The pathophysiology of AN and the involvement of food intake-regulatory peptides is still poorly understood. Nesfatin-1, an anorexigenic peptide also involved in the mediation of stress, anxiety and depression might be a likely candidate involved in the pathogenesis of AN. Therefore, activation of nesfatin-1 immunoreactive (ir) brain nuclei was investigated under conditions of ABA. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were used and divided into four groups (n=6/group): activity-based anorexia (ABA), restricted feeding (RF), activity (AC) and ad libitum fed (AL). After the 21-day experimental period and development of ABA, brains were processed for c-Fos/nesfatin-1 double labeling immunohistochemistry. ABA increased the number of nesfatin-1 immunopositive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus, arcuate nucleus, dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus, locus coeruleus and in the rostral part of the nucleus of the solitary tract compared to AL and AC groups (p0.05). Moreover, we observed significantly more c-Fos and nesfatin-1 ir double-labeled cells in ABA rats compared to RF, AL and AC in the supraoptic nucleus (p