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Clore Laboratory: News
Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Research
16 October 2005 – Studies showing in utero programming can protect against obesity presented at NAASO annual meeting
Mike Cawthorne gave an oral presentation describing the effects of pharmacological leptin treatment of dams in programming offspring to resist obesity at the Annual Scientific Meeting of NAASO, The Obesity Society, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on 15–19 October 2005.
Previous studies have shown that leptin administration during pregnancy and lactation to dams with in utero growth retardation programmes the offspring to resist the development of obesity and insulin resistance induced by a high fat diet in adult life. The current study showed that leptin treatment also programmed pups that were not in utero growth retarded.
Preliminary studies to explore the mechanism of the effect have shown increases in the maximum thermogenic capacity and an increase in AMP kinase (alpha 1 form) activity in skeletal muscle.
The authors are Mike Cawthorne, Ed Wargent, Jacqueline O’Dowd, David Hislop, Jonathan Arch and Claire Stocker.
The full reference to the abstract is:
Cawthorne M, Wargent E, O’Dowd J, Hislop D, Arch J, Stocker C. Pharmacologic treatment of dams programs offspring to resist diet-induced obesity. Obesity Res 2005 13(Suppl 1): A1, 2-OR