Leptin immunoreactivity is localized to neurons in rat brain

Leptin is secreted from adipocytes and is thought to enter the brain to regulate and coordinate metabolism, feeding behaviour, energy balance and reproduction. It is now clear that there are many additional sites of leptin production, including human placenta, ovary, stomach, skeletal muscle, mammary gland, pituitary gland and brain. In the present work, we employed double-label immunofluorescent histochemistry to establish the neuronal localization of leptin immunoreactivity (IR). To accomplish this, we used the neuron-specific marker NeuN to label cells in the arcuate nucleus (ARC), piriform cortex and hippocampus. In the supraoptic nucleus (SON) and paraventricular nucleus (PVN), we used antisera to oxytocin and vasopressin as neuronal markers. Double labelling revealed leptin IR in neurons of the ARC and piriform cortex. Leptin IR was confined to the nucleus and to distinct perinuclear sites. In contrast, neurons in the CA 2/CA 3 region of the hippocampus showed little nuclear staining. Leptin IR was clustered around the nucleus in these cells. Neurons of the dentate gyrus exhibited both nuclear and perinuclear localization of leptin IR. In the SON/PVN, most oxytocin- and vasopressin-IR neurons also contained leptin IR, often in perinuclear sites. In conclusion, the neuronal, perinuclear localization of leptin IR in rat brain corresponds closely to that of leptin receptor (OB-R) IR, which has also been detected intracellularly. Our observation of leptin IR associated with cell nuclei suggests the existence of an OB-R distinct from the well-described membrane forms.