The focus of this group is on understanding how the brain responds to alterations in body weight and how this, in turn, impacts upon the endocrine system.
Obesity is a common disease which poses serious health risks, particularly for diabetics.
Serious disorders of eating behaviour and their impact are poorly understood. The discovery of leptin and other appetite regulation factors provides for further research into this area. Recombinant human leptin is used to examine effects on the neuroendocrine system of sheep. We study the effects of altered body weight on the expression of appetite regulating peptides in the brain to gage the changes in the neuroendocrine hypothalamus. In other work, we have examined leptin receptor expression in the brain and pituitary gland.