Decreased transport of leptin across the blood–brain barrier in rats lacking the short form of the leptin receptor

Leptin is produced in adipose tissue in the periphery, but its satiety effect is exerted in the CNS that it reaches by a saturable transport system across the blood–brain barrier (BBB). The short form of the leptin receptor has been hypothesized to be the transporter, with impaired transport of leptin being implicated in obesity. In Koletsky rats, the splice variant that gives rise to the short form of the leptin receptor contains a point mutation that results in marked obesity. We studied the transport of leptin across the BBB in Koletsky rats and found it to be significantly less than in their lean littermates. By contrast, Sprague–Dawley rats matched in weight to each of these two groups showed no difference in the blood–to–brain influx of leptin. HPLC showed that most of the leptin crossing the BBB in rats remained intact and capillary depletion showed that most of the leptin reached the parenchyma of the brain. The results indicate that the short form of the leptin receptor is involved in the transport of leptin across the BBB.