BACKGROUND Leptin is an adipocyte-derived hormone critical for energy homeostasis and implicated in vascular disease processes. The relevant cellular leptin receptor pools and signaling pathways involved in leptin-related vascular phenotypes in vivo are unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS Arterial injury was induced in wild-type (wt), leptin-deficient (lep(ob/ob)), and leptin receptor-deficient (lep...

Leptin and adiponectin, two adipocytokines, may work together in regulating energy homeostasis and insulin action. Leptin gene expression has been investigated in term placental tissue complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but never in conjunction with all isoforms of the leptin receptor (LEPR A-D), or with adiponectin receptors (ADIPOR1 and 2). In this study we examined the assoc...

The purposes of this study were to examine concentrations of leptin and biochemical parameters in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) patients and normal glucose tolerance (NGT) individuals, and also to explore the links of leptin (LEP) G2548A and leptin receptor (LEPR) Gln223Arg polymorphisms with leptin levels and GDM risk among Chinese. Our study included 357 GDM and 355 NGT individuals who ...

The outcome of Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) has challenged the field of blood pressure (BP) genetics as previous candidate genes have not been among the top loci in these scans. We used Affymetrix 500K genotyping data of KORA S3 cohort (n = 1,644; Southern-Germany) to address (i) SNP coverage in 160 BP candidate genes; (ii) the evidence for associations with BP traits in genome-wide a...

BACKGROUND This meta-analysis enabled us to obtain a precise estimation of the association between gene polymorphisms on chromosome 1 (MTHFR, AGT, F5, IL-10, LEPR) and the susceptibility to pre-eclampsia (PE) in order to reach a uniform conclusion. MATERIAL AND METHODS Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochran Library (CENTRAL), and Chinese databases (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure-CNK...

OBJECTIVE To verify that adiponectin and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α reciprocally regulate their expression, thereby synergistically affecting both coronary and aortic endothelial dysfunction in type 2 diabetic mice. METHODS AND RESULTS We examined endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent vasodilation/vasorelaxation of coronary arterioles and aortas in control mice, diabetic mice (...

Resveratrol is a natural phytophenol that exhibits cardioprotective effects. This study was designed to elucidate the mechanisms by which resveratrol protects against diabetes-induced cardiac dysfunction. Normal control (m-Lepr(db)) mice and type 2 diabetic (Lepr(db)) mice were treated with resveratrol orally for 4 wk. In vivo MRI showed that resveratrol improved cardiac function by increasing ...

T he Lepr/Lepr mouse is an autosomal recessive model of extreme obesity that phenotypically appears very similar to the Lepr/Lepr mouse, in which the leptin protein is absent (1). However, in the Lepr/Lepr mouse, the leptin protein is structurally normal (1). Leptin is ineffectual when injected into Lepr/Lepr mice, indicating that they are resistant to the action of this hormone (1). Recently, ...

Although the central nervous system melanocortin system is an important regulator of energy balance, the role of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in mediating the chronic effects of leptin on appetite, blood pressure, and glucose regulation is unknown. Using Cre/loxP technology we tested whether leptin receptor deletion in POMC neurons (LepR/POMC-Cre mice) attenuates the chronic effects of le...

The highly seasonal anadromous Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) was used to investigate the possible involvement of altered gene expression of brain neuropeptides in seasonal appetite regulation. Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMCA1, POMCA2), Cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript (CART), Agouti related Peptide (AgRP), Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and Melanocortin Receptor 4 (MC4-R) genes were examined....