The mutant gene responsible for obesity in the ob/ob mouse was recently identified by positional cloning (Zhang Y., R. Proenca, M. Maffel, M. Barone, L. Leopold, and J.M. Friedman. 1994. Nature (Lond.) 372:425). The encoded protein and to represent and "adipostat" signal reflecting the state of energy stores. We confirm that the adipocyte is the source of ob mRNA and that the predicted 16-kD ob...

Laposky, Aaron D., Jonathan Shelton, Joseph Bass, Christine Dugovic, Nicholas Perrino, and Fred W. Turek. Altered sleep regulation in leptin-deficient mice. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 290: R894–R903, 2006. First published November 17, 2005; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00304.2005.—Recent epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies have demonstrated important links between sleep durat...

The neuroendocrine effects of leptin on metabolism hold promise to be translated into a complementary therapy to traditional insulin therapy for diabetes and obesity. However, injections of leptin can provoke inflammation. We tested the effects of leptin, produced in the physiological adipocyte location, on metabolism in mouse models of genetic and dietary obesity. We generated 3T3-L1 adipocyte...

KAPLAN, MURRAY L., AND GILBERT A. LEVEILLE. Core temperature, 02 consumption, and early detection of ob/ob genotype in mice. Am. J. Physiol. 227(4) : 912-915. 1974.-Oxygen consumption and core temperature of ob/ob mice and their thin littermates were measured at various ambient temperatures from 10 to 30°C. At every ambient temperature studied, adult obese mice exhibited lower 02 consumptions a...

Recent evidence has been presented that expression of lipogenic genes is downregulated in adipose tissue of ob/ob mice as well as in human obesity, suggesting a functionally lipoatrophic state. Using (2)H(2)O labeling, we measured three adipose tissue biosynthetic processes concurrently: triglyceride (TG) synthesis, palmitate de novo lipogenesis (DNL), and cell proliferation (adipogenesis). To ...

In order to examine the role of the pituitary in the obese-hyperglycemic syndrome, obese (ob/ob) and nonobese sibling (OB/?) mice were sham-operated or hypophysectomized by a parapharyngeal method at 60 to 90 days of age and subsequently weighed for nine weeks. Completeness of hypophysectomy was assessed by microscopic examination of stained serial sections of the brain and attached hypophyseal...