Leptin levels during the perinatal period are important for the development of metabolic systems involved in energy homeostasis. In rodents, there is a postnatal leptin surge, with circulating leptin levels increasing around postnatal day (PND) 5 and peaking between PND 9 and PND 10. At this time circulating leptin acts as an important trophic factor for the development of hypothalamic circuits...

BACKGROUND Very little is known about how milk hormones, shown to influence growth during infancy, may contribute to patterns of altered growth in high altitude living infants. AIM This study investigated the association between maternal BMI, the metabolic hormones adiponectin and leptin in human milk and infant weight for age z-scores (WAZ) in Tibetans. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A sample of 116...

Dairy cows suffer from an intense energy deficit at parturition due to the onset of copious milk synthesis and depressed appetite. Despite this deficit, maternal metabolism is almost completely devoted to the support of mammary metabolism. Evidence from rodents suggests that, during periods of nutritional insufficiency, a reduction in plasma leptin serves to co-ordinate energy metabolism. As an...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been identified as an endothelium-specific mitogen and inducer of angiogenesis and endothelial cell survival. Leptin and hCG have also been suggested as possible regulators of angiogenesis in various models. In-vivo and in-vitro assays revealed that leptin has an angiogenic activity and that the vascular endothelium is a target for leptin. Thus, we ...

We investigated the consequences of mild maternal malnutrition in rat dams, in terms of thymocyte responses and the putative role of leptin. The young progeny of dams submitted to protein deprivation (PD) during lactation showed at 30 days of age lower body and thymus weights, significant alterations in CD4/CD8-defined T cell subsets without modifications in total thymocyte number as well as in...

Maternal malnutrition during lactation programmes for overweight and central leptin resistance in adulthood. The inhibition of lactation by maternal treatment with bromocriptine (a prolactin inhibitor) programmes for obesity, hyperleptinaemia and leptin resistance. Here, we evaluated the short- and long-term effects of early weaning (EW) on body-weight regulation, leptin signalling, and hormone...

The necessity to accommodate the developmental and fuel requirements of the fetus confers upon the pregnant mother a considerable nutritional burden. Pregnancy is thus a state in which the maternal response to feeding and fasting is substantially modified to ensure a constant supply of glucose for the developing fetus, while maintaining the glucose and energy requirements of the mother. One of ...

Abstract To evaluate the hypothesis that offspring born to restricted- and over-fed ewes would exhibit decreased glucose tolerance, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), increased leptin, multiparous Dorset (n = 46) pregnant with twins were fed 100%, 60% or 140% of National Research Council (NRC) requirements from d30±0.02 gestation until parturition. Offspring are referred as CON (n=10 ew...

Increased plasma level of leptin appears to be a ubiquitous feature of pregnant mammals. The mechanisms by which leptin levels are increased may be species specific, however, with some species upregulating adipose leptin production and others expressing leptin in the placenta. Placental leptin expression was examined in representative species of the two most abundant mammalian orders, Rodentia ...