Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: We previously reported the novel finding that leptin, and several other fat-derived hormones (adipokines), is expressed and regulated in rat hypothalamus (1). Subsequently leptin (ob) mRNA was found in human, sheep and pig brain, but was surprisingly undetectable in mouse brain. In the present experiments we used a mouse hypothalamic neuronal cell line to investigate possible inhibitory mechanisms that may prevent mouse neurons from expressing ob mRNA. These incl...

Introduction: The hypothalamic kiss1/kisspeptin system is pivotal in controlling fertility. However, kiss1 transcripts were also quantified in rat fat, where expression was regulated by oestradiol (Brown et al. 2008) and by dihydrotestosterone (DHT; Brown et al. 2009). In human fat, microarray analysis revealed abnormal, multiple gene expression in obese PCOS patients (Corton et al. 2007). In the present experiments we used a rat model (Manne...

Introduction: Elevated intraocular (vitreous) leptin is implicated in proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The source of vitreous leptin is uncertain and it could be derived from systemic leptin. However we showed that leptin (ob) mRNA is present in rat retina, suggesting that retinal tissue could also be a source of intraocular leptin. The present investigation quantified ob mRNA in human retinal tissue obtained from diabetic and control cadavers. In a parall...