Leptin News and Research

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Leptin is a 16 kDa protein hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism. It is one of the most important adipose derived hormones. The ''Ob(Lep)'' gene (Ob for obese, Lep for leptin) is located on chromosome 7 in humans.

Researchers successfully convert adult human skin cells into neurons that control appetite

Researchers have for the first time successfully converted adult human skin cells into neurons of the type that regulate appetite, providing a patient-specific model for studying the neurophysiology of weight control and testing new therapies for obesity.

28 Feb 2015

Scientists develop potential new therapy based on cow's immune molecules for hormone deficiencies

To help people with hormone deficiencies, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a potential new therapy based on an unlikely model: immune molecules from cows.

9 Feb 2015

Using antioxidant to reverse brain inflammation improves obesity, diabetes symptoms

Using an antioxidant to reverse inflammation in the brain caused by a high-fat diet greatly improves symptoms related to obesity and type II diabetes, a new study from New Zealand's University of Otago suggests.

30 Jan 2015

Researchers identify molecular pathways that could lead to new therapeutic targets for cerebral malaria

A drug already approved for treating other diseases may be useful as a treatment for cerebral malaria, according to researchers at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. They discovered a novel link between food intake during the early stages of infection and the outcome of the disease, identifying two molecular pathways that could serve as new targets for treatment.

30 Jan 2015

Research findings may accelerate work to safely control diabetes

For those with diabetes, managing blood sugar is a balancing act -- if blood sugar is too high it raises the risk for nerve damage, blindness, kidney failure, and heart trouble, and if too low it can lead to a seizure or unconsciousness.

24 Jan 2015

CWRU researchers find mechanism that enables LRAT enzyme to store vitamin A

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have uncovered the mechanism that enables the enzyme Lecithin: retinol acyltransferase (LRAT) to store vitamin A — a process that is indispensable for vision.

12 Dec 2014

Enzymatic activity essential for vision may provide target for drug transport

10 Dec 2014

Hormone leptin increases blood pressure that occurs with weight gain

Leptin, a hormone that regulates the amount of fat stored in the body, also drives the increase in blood pressure that occurs with weight gain, according to researchers from Monash University and the University of Cambridge.

5 Dec 2014

Researchers discover link between obesity and hypertension

The link between obesity and cardiovascular diseases is well acknowledged. Being obese or overweight is a major risk factor for the development of elevated blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases. But it has net been known how obesity increases the risk of high blood pressure, making it difficult to develop evidence based therapies for obesity, hypertension and heart disease.

5 Dec 2014

Findings shed light on why PPARγ activators have side effect of promoting weight gain

The brain plays a central role in regulating appetite and whole-body metabolism. A protein known as PPARγ is important in the brain's control of food intake and body weight, but the identity of the neurons regulating this process has been unclear.

4 Aug 2014

Xbp1s protein plays key role in brain regions to regulate metabolism

A protein that controls when genes are switched on or off plays a key role in specific areas of the brain to regulate metabolism, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

26 Jul 2014

Study identifies molecular mechanisms could lead to new therapies to treat obesity, diabetes

A protein that controls when genes are switched on or off plays a key role in specific areas of the brain to regulate metabolism, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

25 Jul 2014

Mice fed with omega 3 fatty acids have healthier joints

Mice consuming a supplement of omega 3 fatty acids had healthier joints than those fed diets high in saturated fats and omega 6 fatty acids, according to Duke Medicine researchers.

11 Jul 2014

Rockefeller scientists identify protein that makes breast cancer cells more likely to metastasize

Using an innovative tool that captures heretofore hidden ways that cells are regulated, scientists at Rockefeller University have identified a protein that makes breast cancer cells more likely to metastasize.

10 Jul 2014

Telephone-based weight loss intervention is effective in breast cancer treatments

A series of simple telephone calls can make a profound difference in helping women to meet their treatment goals for breast cancer, according to a randomized trial of women who are also obese, published online today in Journal of Clinical Oncology by Dr. Pamela Goodwin of Mount Sinai Hospital and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute.

20 Jun 2014

Proteins causing daytime sleepiness also play crucial role in bone formation

Orexin proteins, which are blamed for spontaneous daytime sleepiness, also play a crucial role in bone formation, according to findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.

13 Jun 2014

People with obesity gene FTO tend to gain more weight as they age

A new study from Uppsala University demonstrates that elderly humans carrying a common variant of the fat mass and obesity gene FTO also have a shifted endocrine balance. Low blood concentrations of the satiety hormone leptin and high blood concentrations of the hunger promoting hormone ghrelin makes carriers of the FTO gene put on weight.

12 Jun 2014

New data shows adult America is 55% obese, not 35%

On the heels of the wake-up call from 'FED UP', the just released documentary on obesity, it is no surprise that the CDC's (U.S. Center for Disease Control) obesity statistics are grossly under reported. Meredith

6 Jun 2014

Yale researchers find that hormone leptin may help treat metabolic disorders

Twenty years after the hormone leptin was found to regulate metabolism, appetite, and weight through brain cells called neurons, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that the hormone also acts on other types of cells to control appetite.

2 Jun 2014

Researchers discover how gene commonly linked to obesity contributes to weight gain

Researchers have discovered how a gene commonly linked to obesity—FTO—contributes to weight gain. The study shows that variations in FTO indirectly affect the function of the primary cilium, a little-understood hair-like appendage on brain and other cells.

23 May 2014