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Frontiers in Endocrinology 2021The peptide hormone leptin regulates food intake, body mass, and reproductive function and plays a role in fetal growth, proinflammatory immune responses, angiogenesis... (Review)
Review
The peptide hormone leptin regulates food intake, body mass, and reproductive function and plays a role in fetal growth, proinflammatory immune responses, angiogenesis and lipolysis. Leptin is a product of the obese () gene and, following synthesis and secretion from fat cells in white adipose tissue, binds to and activates its cognate receptor, the leptin receptor (LEP-R). LEP-R distribution facilitates leptin's pleiotropic effects, playing a crucial role in regulating body mass a negative feedback mechanism between adipose tissue and the hypothalamus. Leptin resistance is characterized by reduced satiety, over-consumption of nutrients, and increased total body mass. Often this leads to obesity, which reduces the effectiveness of using exogenous leptin as a therapeutic agent. Thus, combining leptin therapies with leptin sensitizers may help overcome such resistance and, consequently, obesity. This review examines recent data obtained from human and animal studies related to leptin, its role in obesity, and its usefulness in obesity treatment.
Topics: Animals; Energy Metabolism; Humans; Hypothalamus; Leptin; Obesity; Risk Factors; Satiety Response; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 34084149
DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2021.585887 -
Endocrine Reviews Jan 2021The discovery of leptin was intrinsically associated with its ability to regulate body weight. However, the effects of leptin are more far-reaching and include profound... (Review)
Review
The discovery of leptin was intrinsically associated with its ability to regulate body weight. However, the effects of leptin are more far-reaching and include profound glucose-lowering and anti-lipogenic effects, independent of leptin's regulation of body weight. Regulation of glucose metabolism by leptin is mediated both centrally and via peripheral tissues and is influenced by the activation status of insulin signaling pathways. Ectopic fat accumulation is diminished by both central and peripheral leptin, an effect that is beneficial in obesity-associated disorders. The magnitude of leptin action depends upon the tissue, sex, and context being examined. Peripheral tissues that are of particular relevance include the endocrine pancreas, liver, skeletal muscle, adipose tissues, immune cells, and the cardiovascular system. As a result of its potent metabolic activity, leptin is used to control hyperglycemia in patients with lipodystrophy and is being explored as an adjunct to insulin in patients with type 1 diabetes. To fully understand the role of leptin in physiology and to maximize its therapeutic potential, the mechanisms of leptin action in these tissues needs to be further explored.
Topics: Animals; Body Weight; Glucose; Humans; Insulin; Leptin; Lipid Metabolism; Organ Specificity
PubMed: 33150398
DOI: 10.1210/endrev/bnaa027 -
Biochemical Pharmacology May 2022Obesity is a chronic, relapsing condition characterized by excess body fat. Its prevalence has increased globally since the 1970s, and the number of obese and overweight... (Review)
Review
Obesity is a chronic, relapsing condition characterized by excess body fat. Its prevalence has increased globally since the 1970s, and the number of obese and overweight people is now greater than those underweight. Obesity is a multifactorial condition, and as such, many components contribute to its development and pathogenesis. This is the first of three companion reviews that consider obesity. This review focuses on the genetics, viruses, insulin resistance, inflammation, gut microbiome, and circadian rhythms that promote obesity, along with hormones, growth factors, and organs and tissues that control its development. It shows that the regulation of energy balance (intake vs. expenditure) relies on the interplay of a variety of hormones from adipose tissue, gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, liver, and brain. It details how integrating central neurotransmitters and peripheral metabolic signals (e.g., leptin, insulin, ghrelin, peptide YY) is essential for controlling energy homeostasis and feeding behavior. It describes the distinct types of adipocytes and how fat cell development is controlled by hormones and growth factors acting via a variety of receptors, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma, retinoid X, insulin, estrogen, androgen, glucocorticoid, thyroid hormone, liver X, constitutive androstane, pregnane X, farnesoid, and aryl hydrocarbon receptors. Finally, it demonstrates that obesity likely has origins in utero. Understanding these biochemical drivers of adiposity and metabolic dysfunction throughout the life cycle lends plausibility and credence to the "obesogen hypothesis" (i.e., the importance of environmental chemicals that disrupt these receptors to promote adiposity or alter metabolism), elucidated more fully in the two companion reviews.
Topics: Adipocytes; Adipose Tissue; Energy Metabolism; Humans; Insulin; Leptin; Obesity
PubMed: 35393120
DOI: 10.1016/j.bcp.2022.115012 -
Endocrinology Feb 2021A healthy nutritional state is required for all aspects of reproduction and is signaled by the adipokine leptin. Leptin acts in a relatively narrow concentration range:... (Review)
Review
A healthy nutritional state is required for all aspects of reproduction and is signaled by the adipokine leptin. Leptin acts in a relatively narrow concentration range: too much or too little will compromise fertility. The leptin signal timing is important to prepubertal development in both sexes. In the brain, leptin acts on ventral premammillary neurons which signal kisspeptin (Kiss1) neurons to stimulate gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons. Suppression of Kiss1 neurons occurs when agouti-related peptide neurons are activated by reduced leptin, because leptin normally suppresses these orexigenic neurons. In the pituitary, leptin stimulates production of GnRH receptors (GnRHRs) and follicle-stimulating hormone at midcycle, by activating pathways that derepress actions of the messenger ribonucleic acid translational regulatory protein Musashi. In females, rising estrogen stimulates a rise in serum leptin, which peaks at midcycle, synchronizing with nocturnal luteinizing hormone pulses. The normal range of serum leptin levels (10-20 ng/mL) along with gonadotropins and growth factors promote ovarian granulosa and theca cell functions and oocyte maturation. In males, the prepubertal rise in leptin promotes testicular development. However, a decline in leptin levels in prepubertal boys reflects inhibition of leptin secretion by rising androgens. In adult males, leptin levels are 10% to 50% of those in females, and high leptin inhibits testicular function. The obesity epidemic has elucidated leptin resistance pathways, with too much leptin in either sex leading to infertility. Under conditions of balanced nutrition, however, the secretion of leptin is timed and regulated within a narrow level range that optimizes its trophic effects.
Topics: Adipocytes; Animals; Female; Humans; Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System; Leptin; Male; Ovary; Reproduction; Signal Transduction; Testis
PubMed: 33165520
DOI: 10.1210/endocr/bqaa204 -
Journal of the American College of... Feb 2021Leptin has emerged over the past 2 decades as a key hormone secreted by adipose tissue that conveys information on energy stores. Leptin is considered an important... (Review)
Review
Leptin has emerged over the past 2 decades as a key hormone secreted by adipose tissue that conveys information on energy stores. Leptin is considered an important regulator of both neuroendocrine function and energy homeostasis. Numerous studies (mainly preclinical and much less in humans) have investigated the mechanisms of leptin's actions both in the healthy state as well as in a wide range of metabolic diseases. In this review, the authors present leptin physiology and review the main findings from animal studies, observational and interventional studies, and clinical trials in humans that have investigated the role of leptin in metabolism and cardiometabolic diseases (energy deficiency, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). The authors discuss the similarities and discrepancies between animal and human biology and present clinical applications of leptin, directions for future research, and current approaches for the development of the next-generation leptin analogs.
Topics: Animals; Clinical Trials as Topic; Humans; Leptin; Obesity; Thinness
PubMed: 33573745
DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2020.11.069 -
Nutrients Jul 2020Leptin is highly expressed in the placenta, mainly by trophoblastic cells, where it has an important autocrine trophic effect. Moreover, increased leptin levels are... (Review)
Review
Leptin is highly expressed in the placenta, mainly by trophoblastic cells, where it has an important autocrine trophic effect. Moreover, increased leptin levels are found in the most frequent pathology of pregnancy: gestational diabetes, where leptin may mediate the increased size of the placenta and the fetus, which becomes macrosomic. In fact, leptin mediates the increased protein synthesis, as observed in trophoblasts from gestational diabetic subjects. In addition, leptin seems to facilitate nutrients transport to the fetus in gestational diabetes by increasing the expression of the glycerol transporter aquaporin-9. The high plasma leptin levels found in gestational diabetes may be potentiated by leptin resistance at a central level, and obesity-associated inflammation plays a role in this leptin resistance. Therefore, the importance of anti-inflammatory nutrients to modify the pathology of pregnancy is clear. In fact, nutritional intervention is the first-line approach for the treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus. However, more nutritional intervention studies with nutraceuticals, such as polyphenols or polyunsaturated fatty acids, or nutritional supplementation with micronutrients or probiotics in pregnant women, are needed in order to achieve a high level of evidence. In this context, the Mediterranean diet has been recently found to reduce the risk of gestational diabetes in a multicenter randomized trial. This review will focus on the impact of maternal obesity on placental inflammation and nutrients transport, considering the mechanisms by which leptin may influence maternal and fetal health in this setting, as well as its role in pregnancy pathologies.
Topics: Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Diabetes, Gestational; Diet, Mediterranean; Female; Fetal Macrosomia; Humans; Leptin; Nutrition Therapy; Nutritional Status; Obesity; Placenta; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications; Trophoblasts
PubMed: 32630697
DOI: 10.3390/nu12071970 -
Nutrients Dec 2021This Special Issue of "Leptin and Metabolic Programming" includes one review article regarding the function of leptin throughout the entire life on cardiometabolic...
This Special Issue of "Leptin and Metabolic Programming" includes one review article regarding the function of leptin throughout the entire life on cardiometabolic fates and four original articles related to the new function of leptin present in milk and liquid amniotic, its possible relation with other components of breast milk, and how environmental conditions may impact on leptin action and metabolic programming [...].
Topics: Female; Humans; Leptin; Male; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Milk, Human
PubMed: 35010989
DOI: 10.3390/nu14010114 -
Journal of Lipid Research Oct 2019The breakthrough discoveries of leptin and adiponectin more than two decades ago led to a widespread recognition of adipose tissue as an endocrine organ. Many more... (Review)
Review
The breakthrough discoveries of leptin and adiponectin more than two decades ago led to a widespread recognition of adipose tissue as an endocrine organ. Many more adipose tissue-secreted signaling mediators (adipokines) have been identified since then, and much has been learned about how adipose tissue communicates with other organs of the body to maintain systemic homeostasis. Beyond proteins, additional factors, such as lipids, metabolites, noncoding RNAs, and extracellular vesicles (EVs), released by adipose tissue participate in this process. Here, we review the diverse signaling mediators and mechanisms adipose tissue utilizes to relay information to other organs. We discuss recently identified adipokines (proteins, lipids, and metabolites) and briefly outline the contributions of noncoding RNAs and EVs to the ever-increasing complexities of adipose tissue inter-organ communication. We conclude by reflecting on central aspects of adipokine biology, namely, the contribution of distinct adipose tissue depots and cell types to adipokine secretion, the phenomenon of adipokine resistance, and the capacity of adipose tissue to act both as a source and sink of signaling mediators.
Topics: Adiponectin; Adipose Tissue; Animals; Humans; Leptin; Lipid Metabolism; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 31209153
DOI: 10.1194/jlr.R094060 -
Biomolecules Dec 2021Leptin is a 16-kDa multifunctional, neuroendocrine peptide hormone secreted by adipocytes in proportion to total adipose tissue mass, known to control food intake,...
Leptin is a 16-kDa multifunctional, neuroendocrine peptide hormone secreted by adipocytes in proportion to total adipose tissue mass, known to control food intake, energy homeostasis, immune response, and reproductive processes [...].
Topics: Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Humans; Leptin; Neoplasms
PubMed: 34944480
DOI: 10.3390/biom11121836 -
International Journal of Molecular... Oct 2022The World Health Organization (WHO) refers to obesity as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a health risk. Obesity was first designated as a disease in... (Review)
Review
The World Health Organization (WHO) refers to obesity as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a health risk. Obesity was first designated as a disease in 2012 and since then the cost and the burden of the disease have witnessed a worrisome increase. Obesity and hypertension are closely interrelated as abdominal obesity interferes with the endocrine and immune systems and carries a greater risk for insulin resistance, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Many factors are at the interplay between obesity and hypertension. They include hemodynamic alterations, oxidative stress, renal injury, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance, sleep apnea syndrome and the leptin-melanocortin pathway. Genetics, epigenetics, and mitochondrial factors also play a major role. The measurement of blood pressure in obese patients requires an adapted cuff and the search for other secondary causes is necessary at higher thresholds than the general population. Lifestyle modifications such as diet and exercise are often not enough to control obesity, and so far, bariatric surgery constitutes the most reliable method to achieve weight loss. Nonetheless, the emergence of new agents such as Semaglutide and Tirzepatide offers promising alternatives. Finally, several molecular pathways are actively being explored, and they should significantly extend the treatment options available.
Topics: Humans; Leptin; Insulin Resistance; Obesity; Hypertension; Melanocortins
PubMed: 36293177
DOI: 10.3390/ijms232012305