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Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Increased Leptin Permeation across the Blood–Brain Barrier after Chronic Alcohol Ingestion
Neuropsychopharmacology advance online publication 9 May 2007




Leptin, a polypeptide mainly produced in the periphery, crosses the blood–brain barrier (BBB) by receptor-mediated transport to exert multiple central nervous system actions including decreased food intake. The reciprocal interactions between leptin transport and alcohol drinking are not clear.

In this study, we tested whether alcohol increases leptin entry into brain and, if this occurs, whether it is a consequence of a generalized increase in the permeability of the BBB.

The results showing increased leptin permeation across the BBB lead to the speculation that leptin may serve as a homeostatic feeding signal in these mice.

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