Discovery
The effects of leptin were observed by studying mutant obese mice that arose at random within a mouse colony at the Jackson Laboratory in 1950. These mice were massively obese and excessively voracious. Ultimately, several strains of laboratory mice have been found to be homozygous for single-gene mutations that cause them to become grossly obese, and they fall into two classes: "ob/ob", those having mutations in the gene for the protein hormone leptin, and "db/db", those having mutations in the gene that encodes the receptor for leptin. When ob/ob mice are treated with injections of leptin, they lose their excess fat and return to normal body weights.
Leptin itself was discovered in 1994 by Jeffrey M. Friedman at the Rockefeller University and Douglas L. Coleman through the study of such mice.
Read more about this topic: Leptin
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