DA neurons are involved in regulation of food consumption by modulating feeding and food reward19 and previous studies have reported the importance of FoxO1 in the control of food intake232021. Therefore, we postulated that the improved glucose/insulin sensitivity and resistance to diet-induced obesity in FoxO1 KODAT mice were due, at least in part, to decreased food intake. However, FoxO1 KODAT mice showed no difference in food intake compared with WT mice in chow diet (Fig. 4a). Next, we examined whether FoxO1 deletion in DA neurons has effect on fasting and re-feeding response46. Re-feeding experiments in chow diet, however, failed to detect any changes in rebound food intake, weight gain or blood glucose between WT and FoxO1 KODAT mice (Fig. 4b–d and Supplementary Fig. 3a and b). Accordingly, there was no difference in the expression of hypothalamic neuropeptides involved in feeding behaviour including Agrp, Npy, Pomc and Cart (Supplementary Fig. 3c).
