Research
Hormonal
Exogenous leptin administration is an effective treatment for genetic leptin deficiency and lipodystrophy, but fails to significantly reduce body weight in common obesity due to central leptin resistance.
Leptin therapy is not a weight loss solution for typical obesity because your body has become resistant to its signals. It is, however, a life-saving treatment for rare conditions like lipodystrophy or genetic leptin deficiency where the body lacks this hormone entirely.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Interestingly, exogenous administration of leptin does not significantly influence appetite and body weight in obese patients, a phenomenon which has been attributed to central leptin resistance... Although chronic leptin administration does not significantly reduce body weight in common human obesity, exogenous leptin can significantly improve insulin resistance, glucose and lipid metabolism when endogenous leptin levels are low such as in patients with lipodystrophy.
Why this rating
Supported by clinical trials in specific patient populations cited in the review.
Source
Clinical Relevance of Adipokines
Matthias Blüher · Diabetes & Metabolism Journal · 2012
DOI 10.4093/dmj.2012.36.5.317
narrative_reviewCited 199×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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