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Leptin


            Leptin, being a protein produced by fat, plays an important role in how the body manages its supply of fat. It is derived from the Greek word, leptos, meaning thin. In general, the greater the body mass is and percent of fat, the higher the levels of leptin. It is believed that leptin acts as an indication of how much fat is really in the body to the brain's hypothalamus, which harmonizes the essential functions of the body such as eating or drinking. Eating performances and energy use that causes, for example, obesity, diabetes, or other abnormalities, can be influenced by variation in the fat's production rate of leptin or from confrontation to leptin at its action site, or even a combination of the two. .
             The amount of leptin in blood is greatly linked to a person's percent of body fat and his or her body mass index (BMI), which is a measurement of kilograms/meter2. Leptin levels vary greatly though from person to person. For example, the amount of leptin for some obese patients with BMIs larger than 40 was the same as for patients with BMIs less than 20. Women have a considerably higher quantity of leptin than men, but when being compared by percent of body fat, men and women have comparable leptin levels. .
             The instructions to make leptin are found in the obese (ob) gene, which was cloned in mice. In 1994, it was proven that the ob gene in mice made leptin, which was actually produced in the fat and then it would be released into the bloodstream. Researchers published a study documenting that there was a thirty percent weight loss in genetically obese mice that were given daily injections of leptin for two weeks. While receiving leptin, the mice were eating less and increasing their use of energy. In these genetically obese mice, alterations in the ob gene resulted in a total lack of leptin production, which lead to acute obesity. When leptin is supplied to these mice, the mice decrease their food intake, their metabolic rate increases, and they lose a significant amount of weight.


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