Hypothalamic Leptin Gene Therapy and Caloric Restriction Have Differential Effects on Energy Intake and Energy Partitioning in Adult Female Rats

摘要

Weight gain during middle age is associated with several chronic diseases. Dieting is a common but often ineffective long-term strategy for stabilizing body weight at optimal levels for health. Similar to humans, middle-aged rats exhibit progressive weight gain and are a useful model for evaluating strategies for controlling weight. The adipokine leptin is an important regulator of appetite and energy expenditure but peripheral hyperleptinemia is associated with leptin resistance and may contribute to chronic inflammation. Here we compared the effects of increasing leptin levels selectively in the hypothalamus using gene therapy with conventional caloric restriction (CR) on weight gain, food consumption, serum leptin, abdominal white adipose tissue, and bone marrow adipose tissue in nine-month-old female rats.