Detection of the leptin receptor in reproductive organs and methods for regulating reproductive biology

摘要

The present invention relates to variant forms of the receptor for the obese gene product. In particular, the invention relates to methods of detecting receptor variants in the reproductive organs for the diagnosis of the cause of infertility. In addition, it relates to methods of inhibiting or down-regulating expression of defective variants in cells to augment their responsiveness to regulation by leptin as well as methods of using compounds to directly activate signal transduction pathways associated with this ligand-receptor system to improve fertility.