Figure 1.
(A) Expression of leptin by HepG2 cells transduced with Ad.RSV-mLeptin (lane 2) or a recombinant adenovirus expressing the hAAT, Ad.RSV-hAAT (lane 3), or the buffer (lane 4). Recombinant leptin produced in E. coli is also shown (lane 1). Numbers at right indicate molecular mass standards (in kDa). (B) Serum leptin levels in ob/ob mice after recombinant adenovirus administration. The ob/ob mice were injected with either Ad.RSV-mLeptin (•) or Ad.RSV-hAAT (▵) at 3 × 109 pfu per mouse. Serum leptin concentrations were measured by Western blot analysis. Two microliters of sera from treated mice was electrophoresed on SDS/PAGE gels. Each point represents the mean ± SEM of seven mice. The limit of detection was 0.05 μg/ml. Three of 10 mice injected with Ad.RSV-mLeptin died within the first 3 weeks for unknown reasons.