Leptin-Serotonin Pathway Offers New Clues For Obesity And Osteoporosis Prevention

"New research from Columbia University Medical Center has illuminated a previously unknown leptin-serotonin pathway in the brain that simultaneously promotes appetite and bone mass accrual. The research, which explains how leptin - well-known appetite-suppressing hormone - acts in the brain, is published in the Sept. 4 issue of Cell.

When the leptin-serotonin pathway is turned on in mice, the researchers found, appetite increases, the animals eat more, gain weight, and their bone mass increases. When the pathway is turned off, mice eat less, lose weight, and their bones weaken. Furthermore, leptin was found to not act in the hypothalamus as previously thought, but in the brain stem acting on serotonin, a hormone that in the brain acts to control appetite, mood and anger."