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Leptin, a hormone secreted by adipocytes, is reduced in starvation and elevated in individuals with severe obesity and leptin resistance. Leptin has also been associated with depression. In several animal models of depression, circulating leptin levels are low, and leptin administration has been shown to have antidepressant-like effects.
To investigate potential mechanisms for leptin in depression, investigators created a knockout mouse in which the long form of the leptin receptor was ablated in glutamatergic neurons in the dorsal forebrain, including cerebral cortex and hippocampus. They subjected the mice to depression-inducing, stressful, behavioral paradigms and then measured their responses to leptin and to an antagonist to a subunit o…