Endocrine Abstracts

The epidemic-like increase in obesity in young people is paralleled by a rise in related diseases such as PCOS, especially in pubertal girls. Kisspeptins, encoded by the KiSS1 gene, are firmly linked with the normal control of the reproductive system and loss-of-function mutations are associated with absence of puberty. Although KiSS1 is predominantly expressed in the hypothalamus (HYP), we detected KiSS1 mRNA in rat pituitary (PIT) and adipose tissue (FAT...

We reported that leptin mRNA is developmentally regulated and hypothesized that local leptin expression is important for the maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary system. Pituitary leptin mRNA levels were down-regulated in early postnatal male and female rats. We now show that pituitary leptin protein content and expression of the long (OBRb) and short (OBRa) leptin receptor isoforms in the pituitary and hypothalamus also undergo age-related changes. Tissue wa...