Melanocortin receptors play crucial roles in multiple physiological processes. Melanocortin receptor 4 (MC4R) is expressed in key brain regions, and MC4R gene mutations can cause severe obesity. However, the cellular biology of MC4R is less well understood owing to the lack of reliable methods to visualize its location. Recently, Siljee and colleagues localized MC4R to the cilia of the neurons within the hypothalamus and showed that cilial expression of MC4R is crucial for the control of metabolic phenotype.

中文翻译：

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神经元纤毛：黑皮质素系统的另一个参与者

黑皮质素受体在多种生理过程中起关键作用。黑皮质素受体4（MC4R）在关键脑区表达，并且MC4R基因突变会导致严重肥胖。但是，由于缺乏可靠的可视化其位置的方法，对MC4R的细胞生物学了解较少。最近，Siljee及其同事将MC4R定位于下丘脑内神经元的纤毛，并表明MC4R的纤毛表达对于控制代谢表型至关重要。