Along with regulating metabolism and weight, researchers found that the hormone leptin also influences brain cells that are responsible for controlling appetite.
This discovery comes twenty years after researchers first identified the role of leptin in weight and metabolic regulations. The study was conducted by Yale School of Medicine researchers.
"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 in a press release. "This work is now changing that paradigm."
The hormone is known to regulate metabolism by controlling the brain's neuronal circuits. However, this is the first study that looked into whether the leptin is capable of influencing any other brain cell. The study was conducted on a group of mice. They selectively knocked out leptin receptors in the adult non-neuronal glial cells. Researchers then noted the food and water intake of the mice along with their physical activities. This was done every five days. At the end of the study, researchers found that animals responded less to feeding due to the reduced effects of leptin but had heightened feeding responses due to the hunger hormone ghrelin.
Leptin is a natural occurring hormone that has a way of blocking hunger. This it does by blocking hunger pang signals that are sent from the body to the brain. It is produced in fat cells and informs the brain of the metabolic state. If animals are missing leptin, or the leptin receptor, they eat too much and become severely obese.
"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."
Findings of this study are important because they can help in the development of treatments for metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes.
The study was published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
