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Glasgow (pte015/22.07.2005/12:24) - Scientists believe that a hormone that regulates appetite may have an influence on learning and memory retention.
The hormone, known as leptin, has come into the spotlight over the last decade in relation to how it regulates appetite and metabolism. Now, however, with obesity becoming increasingly problematic in young children, researchers suggest that a closer look needs to be taken at how obesity affects learning.
Obese people have an abundance of leptin, which is produced by fat tissues in significant quantities, and scientists have thought that this would reduce appetite. But now, it is believed that obese people are desensitised to letpin.
Studies have also linked deficits in memory to metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity.
At the annual meeting of the Biochemical Society in Glasgow http://www.biochemist.org/events/?Cat_ID=1 , UK, this week, Jenni Harvey of the University of Dundee, UK delivered a report on such link findings.
Patients with diabetes can experience "anything from short-term memory loss to Alzheimer's-like symptoms", Harvey said, and maintains that leptin is the key.
Biologist Matthew Wayner of the University of Texas at San Antonio, whose experiments on rats show that too much leptin can hinder the ability of brain cells to respond to a signal, agrees with Harvey.
In his experiments on rats, Wayner found that an increased dosage of the hormone abolishes the effects of long-term potentiation, a process in which nerve cells become more sensitive to stimulus with repeated exposure.
The scientists are now trying to understand how and why leptin secretion in metabolic disorders increases the risk of cognitive functions.
"It may tell us about what goes wrong in these diseases, which could serve as targets for treatments," said Harvey.
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