title: Leptin stimulates fetal and adult erythroid and myeloid development.
abstract: The ob gene product, leptin, has been shown in several studies to be involved in weight control and recombinant leptin recently has entered clinical trials to treat obesity. The leptin receptor (OB-R/B219) is expressed in a variety of protein isoforms not only in the central nervous system, but also in reproductive, and hematopoietic tissues. We reported recently that the OB-R/B219 was associated with a variety of hematopoietic lineages as well as the small fraction of cells containing the long-term reconstituting hematopoietic stem cells. Herein we report that leptin significantly stimulates the proliferation and differentiation of yolk sac cells and fetal liver cells and stimulates directly hematopoietic precursors. Leptin alone can increase the number of macrophage and granulocyte colonies, and leptin plus erythropoietin act synergistically to increase erythroid development. These data show that leptin has a significant, direct effect on early hematopoietic development and can stimulate the differentiation of lineage-restricted precursors of the erythrocytic and myelopoietic lineages. These observations along with a recent report strongly support our previous hypothesis that leptin has an unanticipated important role in hematopoietic and immune system development.
authors.affiliation: Progenitor, Inc, Columbus, OH 43212, USA.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Mikhail
authors.forename: E X
authors.initials: EX
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shafer
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Barut
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Gbur
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Zupancic
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Schweitzer
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cioffi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lacaud
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Snodgrass
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D019070:Cell Lineage; D006410:Hematopoiesis / Q000187:drug effects*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D020738:Leptin; D051379:Mice; D011506:Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015017:Yolk Sac / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D020738:Leptin; D011506:Proteins