Research
Hormonal
Leptin signaling in the arcuate nucleus is critical for regulating body weight, with its effects mediated primarily through AgRP and POMC neurons.
Leptin signals fat stores to the brain to regulate hunger. In obesity, this signaling may be disrupted (leptin resistance), making weight management harder. Understanding this biological signal helps explain why simple calorie restriction often fails long-term.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The adipokine leptin potently inhibits AgRP neuronal activity... Leptin gradually inhibits AgRP neurons and activates POMC neurons gradually on a time scale of hours...
Why this rating
Strong evidence from genetic mouse models (LEPR deletion, Cre-loxP studies).
Source
Arcuate Nucleus-Dependent Regulation of Metabolism—Pathways to Obesity and Diabetes Mellitus
Alexander Jaïs et al. · Endocrine Reviews · 2021
DOI 10.1210/endrev/bnab025
narrative_reviewCited 259×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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