Dr Belinda Henry
CJ Martin Fellow - Department of Physiology
Address
Department of Physiology
Building 13F
Monash University
VIC 3800
Australia
Located
Room FG27, Building 13F (Physiology) at Clayton Campus
Email: Belinda.Henry@med.monash.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 990 58398
Fax: +61 3 990 52547
Background information
Belinda was awarded a BSc (Hons) degree in 1998 and her PhD in 2001 through Monash University. During her PhD, Belinda worked with Professor Iain Clarke at Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research and Associate Professor Alan Tilbrook at Monash University. The title of her thesis was The Neuroendocrinology of Body Weight in Sheep. Belinda’s PhD studies focused on the effects of diet-induced alterations in body weight on appetite-regulating systems in the hypothalamus. She also investigated the role of the fat-derived hormone leptin in ‘signaling’ nutritional status to the brain. After her PhD, Belinda worked at University of Bristol with Professor Stafford Lightman and Dr Christopher Lowry at the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology. Belinda has now returned to Monash University and continues to investigate the neuroendocrine systems involved in the development of obesity.Research Interests
Belinda is a member of the Neuroendocrine Research Group, with major focus on the neuroendocrine predisposition to obesity. Throughout her PhD Belinda demonstrated that diet-induced obesity evoked changes in appetite-regulating systems that reflect a compensatory mechanism to either weight gain or weight loss. For example, in Lean animals, genes that encode peptides involved in stimulating food intake are generally up-regulated in effort to promote hunger drive and increase body weight. Currently, research effort is towards creating models of weight gain, in order to understand endocrine mechanisms of predisposition to obesity. To this end, her focus is on the interactive role between the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and the growth hormone axis. Belinda investigates the effects of altered hormonal status on appetite-regulating systems in the brain and peripheral thermogenic activity in adipose tissue, as well as neuroendocrine and metabolic function. Belinda works alongside Professor Iain Clarke of the Department of Physiology at Monash University as well as other members of the Neuroendocrine Research Group.Recent Key Publications
Henry BA, Lightman SL, Lowry CA (2005) Distribution of corticotropin-releasing factor binding protein-immunoreactivity in the rat hypothalamus: association with cortictropin-releasing factor-, urocortin 1- and vimentin- immunoreactive fibers Journal of Neuroendocrinology 17(3):135-44.
Henry BA, Goding JW, Tilbrook AJ, Dunshea FR, Blache D, Clarke IJ (2004) Leptin-mediated effects of undernutrition or fasting on luteinizing hormone and growth hormone secretion in ovariectomized ewes depend on the duration of metabolic perturbation Journal of Neuroendocrinology 16(3): 244-255
Henry BA (2003) Links between the appetite regulating systems and the neuroendocrine hypothalamus: lessons from the sheep. Journal of Neuroendocrinology 15: 697-709Iqbal J, Henry BA, Pompolo S, Rao A, Clarke IJ (2003) Long-term alteration in bodyweight and food restriction does not affect the gene expression of either preproorexin or prodynorphin in the sheep. Neuroscience. 118(1):217-26.
Henry BA, Rao A, Ikenasio BA, Mountjoy KG, Tilbrook AJ, Clarke IJ (2001) Differential expression of cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript and agouti related-protein in chronically food-restricted sheep. Brain Research 918(1-2):40-50.
Henry BA, Rao A, Tilbrook AJ, Clarke IJ. (2001) Chronic food-restriction alters the expression of somatostatin and growth –hormone releasing hormone in the ovariectomized ewe. Journal of Endocrinology 170(1):R1-5.
Henry BA, Goding JW, Tilbrook AJ, Dunshea FR, Clarke IJ (2001) Intracerebroventricular infusion of leptin restores the secretion of luteinizing hormone without affecting food intake in long-term food restricted sheep, but increases the secretion of growth hormone irrespective of bodyweight. Journal of Endocrinology 168(1): 67-77
Henry BA, Tilbrook AJ, Dunshea FR, Rao A, BLache D, Martin GB, Clarke IJ (2000) Long-term alterations in adiposity affect the expression of melanin-concentrating hormone and enkephalin but not proopiomelanocortin in the hypothalamus of ovariectomized ewes. Endocrinology 141(4): 1506-1514
Henry BA, Goding JW, Alexander WS, Tilbrook AJ, Canny BJ, Rao A, Mansell A, Clarke IJ (1999) Central administration of leptin to ovariectomized ewes inhibits food intake without affecting the secretion of hormones from the pituitary gland: evidence for a dissociation of effects on appetite and neuroendocrine function. Endocrinology 140(3): 1175-1182
