Obesity hormone tackles wound healing
By John Travis
In 1995, the media hailed the newly discovered protein leptin as the “obesity hormone” because it seemed to regulate the amount of fat stored by a body. While leptin remains an unproven weight-loss treatment (SN: 7/18/98, p. 43), scientists have found that the hormone may have many additional roles.
Leptin seems to play a part in immunity, puberty, reproduction, and, according to a study in the January Endocrinology, wound healing. Investigators at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the company developing leptin for commercial purposes, report that injecting the hormone into mice lacking it significantly speeds the rodents’ ability to mend skin wounds. Applying leptin directly to a wound also accelerates its healing, the Amgen team reports.