New Roles of the Primary Cilium in Autophagy

Figure 4

Effects of ciliary dysfunction. Depletion or shortening of PC alters the production of hypothalamic neuropeptides increasing food intake and therefore fat mass. In addition, animals showing ciliary dysfunction are leptin and insulin resistant and intolerant to glucose. In conclusion, depletion or shortening of PC drives obesity and obesity associated diseases. The mechanisms that drive these effects are far from being understood and we propose that this occurs because of an impairment in autophagy. See the main text for additional details.