Relationship Between Leptin and Obesity

Journals Reviews: Relationship between Leptin and Obesity

Introduction

Leptin is recognized as a feedback signal to the Central Nervous System that playing a role in regulation of food intake and energy homeostasis including appetite and metabolism. Leptin is mainly produced by adipocytes having a positive association with serum leptin concentration. It was believed that Leptin inhibit neuropeptides Y (NPY) release and enhance secrete other peptides on the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus which inhibit eating affecting feeding and body weight. Animals who are deficient in leptin produce higher levels of NPY hence more likely to overeat and gaining weight. (Wickens, 2009) Base on this theory, many of advertisements suggested to intake leptin product in order to slim down, such as “liptin coffee..etc” To find out the correlation between leptin and obese people; this paper is written to seek for implications by reviewing journals related to Leptin and Obesity. The major finding and conclusion of the articles were summarized, followed by an evaluation to their strengths and weaknesses. Linkage between the journals and implication will be discussed in the final part.

Three journals were downloaded from the web for this review:

1) Relationship between dietary restraint, binge eating, and leptin in obese women Published by Nature Publishing Group in 2001, and

2) Serum Leptin concentration in obese patients with binge eating disorder Published by Nature Publishing Group in 2001, and

3) Influence of Serum Leptin on Weight and Body Fat Growth in Children at High Risk for Adult Obesity Published in final edited form as: J lin Endocrinil Metab in 2007,

Journal 1 determined the correlation between dietary restraint, binge eating, and leptin among obese woman. Normative data about Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire was provided to describe the biological, behavioral and psychological correlates of it to people who are obese and seeking for treatment. 42 obese women engaged into a residential weight-reduction programme at a public researcher center for the study of obesity. All participants were evaluated by different measurement such as weight, height, body composition, and serum leptin level, binge-eating assessment …etc. during the first week in residential stage. Type 1 diabetes; cancer; anemia, any significant psychiatric illness etc. were excluded from the participants, in addition, none of the selected participant were on dieting or had remarkable weight loss 3months before the start of the study. Result of the study indicated that hunger and disinhibition were associated with binge eating severity. Compared to obese woman who do not have binge-eating episode, binge eating obese woman have significant higher