Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0020505 (hyperphagia)
 6,116 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The obese gene product, leptin, regulates adiposity. Mice homozygous for a nonfunctional obese gene become massively obese and develop diabetes mellitus due to overeating and increased metabolic efficiency. The cDNA sequence of obese was recently reported (Zhang, Y., Proenca, R., Maffei, M., Barone, M., Leopold, L., and Friedman, J. L. (1994) Nature 372, 425-432; Correction: (1995 Nature 374, 479). We have determined the genomic organization of the 5' end of the mouse obese gene. The coding sequence is in exons 2 and 3. A single TATA-containing promoter was found upstream of exon 1. A minority (probably approximately 5%) of the obese mRNA contained an extra, untranslated exon between exons 1 and 2. Transcription of the obese gene was detected only in adipose cells. A 762-base pair obese gene promoter driving a luciferase gene yielded abundant activity in transiently transfected rat adipose cells in primary culture. The obese promoter was inactive in erythroid K562 cells. Deletion of bases from -762 downstream to -161 did not affect promoter activity in transfected adipose cells. The -161 minimal promoter contained consensus Sp1 and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP) motifs. Cotransfection with C/EBP alpha (a transcription factor important in adipose cell differentiation) caused 23-fold activation. These data suggest that the obese promoter is a natural target of C/EBP alpha.
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PMID:The mouse obese gene. Genomic organization, promoter activity, and activation by CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha. 749 16

Obesity is a complex syndrome that involves defective signaling by a number of different factors that regulate appetite and energy homeostasis. Treatment with exogenous leptin reverses hyperphagia and obesity in ob/ob mice, which have a mutation that causes leptin deficiency, proving the importance of this factor and its receptors in the obesity syndrome. Cells with leptin receptors have been identified outside of the appetite regulatory centers in the brain. Thus leptin has peripheral targets. Because macrophages express signaling-competent leptin receptors, these cells may be altered during chronic leptin deficiency. Consistent with this concept, the present study identifies several phenotypic abnormalities in macrophages from ob/ob mice, including decreased steady-state levels of uncoupling protein-2 mRNA, increased mitochondrial production of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, constitutive activation of CCAAT enhancer binding protein (C/EBP)-beta, an oxidant-sensitive transcription factor, increased expression of interleukin-6 and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, two C/EBP-beta target genes, and increased COX-2-dependent production of PGE2. Given the importance of macrophages in the general regulation of inflammation and immunity, these alterations in macrophage function may contribute to obesity-related pathophysiology.
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PMID:Phenotypic abnormalities in macrophages from leptin-deficient, obese mice. 995 Jul 66