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 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

Two young neuroscientists win CAN Young Investigator Awards for 2014

The Canadian Association for Neuroscience is proud to announce that Dr. Stephanie Borgland, from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at University of Calgary, and Dr. Brian Chen, from the Centre for Research in Neuroscience at McGill University, are both winners of CAN Young Investigator Awards for 2014.

8 May 2014

Professor wins 2014 Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from American Diabetes Association

Dr. Joel Elmquist, Director of the Center for Hypothalamic Research at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been awarded the American Diabetes Association's Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award, the organization's top honor for an early-career scientist.

26 Apr 2014

Professor receives 2014 Rolf Luft Award for research on diabetes and endocrinology

Dr. Roger Unger, Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center has been awarded the 2014 Rolf Luft Award for his identification of glucagon as a pancreatic hormone that raises blood sugar levels, having the opposite effect of insulin.

18 Mar 2014

Researchers find unusual mutation strongly linked to rare liver cancer that affects teens

In the race for better treatments and possible cures, rare diseases are often left behind. In a collaboration of researchers at The Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the New York Genome Center (NYGC), an unusual mutation has been found that is strongly linked to one such disease: a rare liver cancer that affects teens and young adults.

3 Mar 2014

Teen diagnosed with liver cancer explores genetic link to rare cancers

A father-daughter scientific collaboration that began after the daughter was diagnosed with a rare liver cancer has led to an important finding and could have broader implications for many other rare cancers. Their story is being published this week in a top tier journal, Science.

3 Mar 2014

Obesity, contraceptives pills may increase risk of developing MS in later stages, says study

The role of the so-called "obesity hormone" leptin and hormones used for birth control in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) is examined in two new studies released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014.

28 Feb 2014

Cognitive decline in obese diabetic mice can be reversed with regular exercise, surgical removal of belly fat

Cognitive decline that often accompanies obesity and diabetes can be reversed with regular exercise or surgical removal of belly fat, scientists report.

26 Feb 2014

Researchers identify specific biomarkers of obesity and early-stage colon cancer

Obesity is a known risk factor for many cancers including colon cancer, yet the reasons behind the colon cancer link have often remained unclear.

5 Feb 2014