Acute selective ablation of rat insulin promoter-expressing (RIP HER ) neurons defines their orexigenic nature

Rat insulin promoter (RIP)-expressing neurons in the hypothalamus control body weight and energy homeostasis. However, genetic approaches to study the role of these neurons have been limited by the fact that RIP expression is predominantly found in pancreatic β-cells, which impedes selective targeting of neurons. To define the function of hypothalamic RIP-expressing neurons, we set out to acutely and selectively eliminate them via diphtheria toxin-mediated ablation. Therefore, the diphtheria toxin receptor transgene was specifically expressed upon RIP-specific Cre recombination using a RIP-Cre line first described by Herrera (RIP HER -Cre) [Herrera PL (2000) Development 127:2317–2322]. Usi…