Hormone Leptin Might Help Treat Obesity: Yale Researchers

Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that hormone Leptin acts on non-neuronal cells to regulate appetite. These non-neuronal cells such as glial cells can be targeted by anti-obesity treatments.

Leptin along with another hormone - ghrelin - is known to control the energy balance of the body. Leptin is helpful in weight loss because it reduces the food intake. Studies have shown that animals who lack in leptin tend to eat a lot of food and as a result, become obese.

Researchers have been trying to decode the function of leptin to understand the mechanism behind obesity.

Scientists had earlier thought that leptin reduces hunger pangs via neurons. Yale researchers said that the new research on leptin can lead to a paradigm shift in studies that try to see how hormones affect appetite.

"Up until now, the scientific community thought that leptin acts exclusively in neurons to modulate behavior and body weight," said senior author Tamas Horvath, the Jean and David W. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Research and chair of comparative medicine at Yale School of Medicine. "This work is now changing that paradigm."

For the study, researchers conducted tests on mice models that lacked leptin receptors. The receptors were removed from non-neuronal glial cells of mice. Researchers then recorded water and food intake along with physical activity levels for five days. Researchers found that the tested animals had high levels of responses to ghrelin, the hunger hormone, according to a news release.

Researchers said that drugs that target glial cells can help fight obesity. Glial cells offer protection and support to neurons.

"Glial cells provide the main barrier between the periphery and the brain," said Horvath. "Thus glial cells could be targeted for drugs that treat metabolic disorders, including obesity and diabetes."

The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.